This switched public numbers: New Ji-won (ID: AI_era), Source: venturebeat, Author: EMIL PROTALINSKI, the compiler: Xiao Qin, the original title of “Boston Power 1000 machine dogs will be available next year! But its CEO said that humans can’t equip robots with weapons. Title: Oriental IC
Boston Dynamics is one of the most well-known companies in the robotics world, thanks in large part to its viral-borne robotic video. Whenever Boston Dynamics released a new robot video, it could quickly get tens of millions of broadcasts on the YouTube platform and spread it on various social media, causing public amazement and even fear.
However, Boston Dynamics does not communicate much with the media, and the outside world does not know much about it. So at last week’s Web Summit 2019 summit, venturebeat interviewed Boston Dynamics CEO Marc Raibert, giving us insight into how Boston Dynamics and how amazing robots are built.
Raibert discusses the three most important robots currently at Boston Dynamics, sorting them by time: today’s robots, tomorrow’s robots (Handle) and future robots (Atlas). He also discussed Boston Dynamics’ current customers, potential applications, artificial intelligence, simulations, and of course, those amazing videos.
Today’s robot: Spot, “Android for Android”
For Raibert, “today” refers to the time of the next year or so. Spot is a “today” robot because it is already shipping to early adopters. In fact, the robot dog Spot was only available for about 6 weeks. BostonPower Company wants Spot to be a platform – Raibert has repeatedly called it “Android for the robotics world.”
This 60-pound Spot “is not a stationary-purpose robot,” Raibert said. Users can add hardware loads or add software that interacts with Spot’s API. Boston Power has equipped the Spot with robotic arms, spectrum radios, cameras and lidars, but other companies are also developing their own sensors.
The “Spot” mentioned here is actually SpotMini. It inherited the name of the previous generation’s big brother Spot and changed its name.
(Spot robot dog navigation)
Spot robots can walk up and down the stairs by using the obstacle check camera to observe the railings and steps. It also has an autonomous navigation system that allows it to travel across a variety of terrains. Spot robots can be manipulated by people, but the built-in computer can control the legs and balance.
(Spot robot dog will open the door)
Spot robots are about 3 miles per hour, which is comparable to human walking. It has cameras on the front, back and sides to help it navigate, move autonomously and move around. It has different gaits (slow walking, walking, running, even dancing), it can beTurning and turning, you can have a “hand grip” mode. The last one means that it separates the movement of the hand from the movement of the body, just as many animals can stabilize a part of the body while moving in other parts of the body.
Lease now, sell later
Boston Power plans to build 1000 Spot robot dogs, many of which have already been shipped. The company expects to complete this goal by mid-2020. We are very curious: Does a company only buy one robot? How many robot dogs have Boston Power sold?
(Stunning mobility of the Boston Power Robot Dog)
“It’s usually not one, usually a pair,” Raibert said. “Up to 5 – almost. We have two delivery methods. One is to deliver robots and provide training, and we are happy to help them succeed, because it will help build the market. There are no emerging markets for quadruped robots. Efforts are being made to help build this market this year. If customers need it, we can even add some features. The other way is to sell directly, but there is much less help and attention.”
In fact, Boston Dynamics has not yet started selling Spot robots. “At the moment, we are renting them,” Raibert said. “I think it’s still very early adopters. In the near future, we will start selling them, but now it’s the way to rent. This is the first generation. I’m sure there will be a lot of problems, lots of places to repair. Look at how rude the customer is on the robot dog. So far, we have achieved great success. Our internal robots may be more rude than they are – because our job is to find out their weaknesses and fix them.
Raibert would not disclose how much the price of a Spot robot dog is.less. However, he said, current machine dog rents are “thousands of dollars per month”. He added that “every transaction is customized”, related to how many robots the company leases, how long it takes to rent, and so on.
Last week, Boston Dynamics released the latest Spot software. The biggest improvement is more autonomous navigation. “I said autonomous navigation, which means you can direct the robot through a site, record a map, and then tell it ‘I want you to go along this road.’ It can complete the task in one go, or routinely perform this Action. You can tell it to collect data with the camera, either an external camera or a built-in camera.” Again, Spot is a platform and the platform is updated.
What is the best place to work for Spot?
Industrial robots are often fixed. Because Spot can move and expand its arms, Boston Power’s bet on Spot can be a more efficient mobile operating platform. At least for now, the company is not interested in making robots that interact with humans. You will notice that all of its robots are focused on dealing with tasks that humans themselves will not, should not or cannot. This is a clear strategic decision. These robots are neither home nor public.
This also means that Boston Dynamics can protect its intellectual property. “The safety of robots depends on whether they are reasonably kept away from humans,” Raibert said. “Or reach an agreement to get people to use the robot carefully.”
Therefore, Boston Dynamics only offers Spot robots to businesses. The company is currently not interested in providing them to developers, enthusiasts or individuals.
(Factory Tour)
RaibeRt said that in the following year, the place where you are most likely to find a Spot robot dog might be warehouse, building area or industrial facility. Moreover, the Spot robot dog is also being shipped to all parts of the world.
The robot dog can use a scanner or a 360-degree camera to capture data with greater precision without compromising human life. For example, in a power distribution company, after some power is turned on, even if it is useful to check, it is not allowed to enter. Boston Dynamics has distributed some Spot robots to these locations, but it is still in beta.
The refinery is also an excellent use case for Spot because of the large amount of data collection and inspection required. Raibert said that it is now done intermittently, so doing this work more regularly is valuable for these facilities. Spot robots worked at a British oil refinery, a national grid power distribution plant, and a construction site in Fujita, where they could save money by routinely collecting 3D scans and data.
Spot also has become an entertainment robot. Boston Dynamics has tested people to “snake robot dogs.” You can control a real robot dog instead of controlling virtual characters in video games. The company is also working with Cirque du Soleil to assess how humans and robots collaborate in performances.
Police and army are also Boston Power customers
A lot of discussion about whether law enforcement and the military should use AI and robots. Boston Power said it accepts such customers, but there are some rules.
“Our cooperation with the police department is limited,” Raibert said. “Only in places like dangerous objects and bomb groups. When they got to a place, don’t know what was in front, they wanted to take a look and put the robot dogs in. They are learning, we are also learning However, such cooperation will be more and more.”
Raibert pointed out that remote operations are particularly useful for police forces because they don’t care about robot autonomy and only care about mobility.
“We have a lot of technology for remotely manipulating robots,” Raibert said. “The robot has some onboard intelligence and can manage all the balance, manipulation and obstacle avoidance, which means it is easier to operate. We are also developing the operating software, you can operate the robot through the screen and let it display the view through the robot’s camera. ,Point to something and then instruct it to go there, or pick up that thing. Therefore, it uses local intelligence and then you can operate remotely.
(“big dog” robot developed for military use)
So does Boston Dynamics have military customers? After all, Boston Power’s original “big dog” was a four-legged robot designed for the US military.
“We don’t have it yet, but there may be,” Raibert said. “We are working hard to focus on hazard avoidance, bomb detection, etc. There are some provisions in our contract, stipulate that humans cannot equip robots with weapons. They are forbidden to harm others or intimidate others. They are not soldiers. Military users can do a lot of things with robots: getting information, dealing with dangerous environments, etc.”
Tomorrow’s robot: Handle, which is actually a simplified version of Atlas
For Raibert, “tomorrow” means about a year and a half later (ie 2021). Handle represents tomorrow’s robot because it is still in the prototype stage. This logistics robot uses a vision system to position the pallet and identify the boxes it needs in many boxes.
“It took about 18 months, we already have a robot that can work in the warehouse,” Raibert said. “About 1 trillion cartons a year are shipped worldwide. This is an estimate based on traffic. These goods are loaded onto trucks, unloaded trucks, stacked on pallets, mixed from one SKU pallet to multiple SKU pallets. Reload the truck, ship it to the retail store, and unpack it for sale.”
(Handle Robot for Warehouse Jobs)
Most of the handling of cartons is not automated. This is a heavy, monotonous, unpleasant job. Boston Dynamics saw a huge opportunity to automate this task with its mobile-powered robots. “So we developed a robot whose goal is to be able to see, move and place the box.”
( Wheeled Mobile is more efficient)
Handle has been on the show for a while, but Spot is still the focus. When asked how much energy the company put into the marketization of Spot, Raibert said it was about 50%. But these energies will soon be transferred to Handle.
“I think our biggest efforts are spent on Spot,” Raibert said. “We have to manage all the production, this is the first time we have produced more than 5 products. Before,Everything is a prototype. Our plan is to use a lot of experience and skills we have learned from Spot to produce Handle on a large scale after a year and a half.
In the end, Boston Dynamics wanted to build robots with a variety of sensing systems, drive systems, planning systems, and more.
Future robot: Atlas, the brightest and strongest, always the prototype
For Raibert, “future” means “sustainable development”. Atlas is a “future” robot because it is always in the prototype stage. So, will Atlas be commercialized?
“I don’t think so,” Raibert admitted. “To be honest, Handle is a descendant of Atlas. Because Atlas can handle the box, we think, ‘So, how to deal with the box is more efficient and cheaper?’ So, there is Handle. It It’s a bit like the humanoid Atlas, but it’s simpler and less free, which means lower cost. We’re working on a rotating Handle robot that is a more specialized version.”
(Atlas Robot Jumps 3)
Atlas is both expensive and critical, and it requires a special team to keep it running. Still, its performance is even worse than any robot created by the company. Atlas is a research project at Boston Dynamics: developing new technologies at Atlas and then applying some of these technologies to their products when appropriate.
Boston Power uses Atlas robots to develop learning and optimization techniques for controlling complex behaviors, as well as developing new hardware technologies.In fact, Boston Dynamics has invested as much as developing dedicated software for Atlas.
The latest version of this humanoid robot weighs 165 pounds and is equipped with a hydraulic power unit weighing about 5 kg, which can generate 5kw of power when the robot is working. It also has a 3d printed leg with hydraulic access, actuator plate, valve position, space frame, custom lightweight components, and more.
Recently, Boston Dynamics tried to get Atlas to perform some basic gymnastics. The goal is to test fast behavior development optimization techniques and machine learning, Raibert explained.
Boston Power has no PR: artificial intelligence, simulation environment and viral video
When it comes to machine learning, we asked how Boston Dynamics uses AI in its robots. Raibert likes to divide AI into two different types, which are most relevant to his company: sports AI is the equivalent of letting us manipulate our bodies (standing, walking, climbing, bypassing obstacles, etc.). Academic AI is what happens when we plan in the mind (calculate when you need to leave home to be late for work). Boston Dynamics focuses on the former.
In other words, if you have taught robots how to stand, walk, navigate, etc., it is much easier to guide the robot to complete a task for you. But Boston Dynamics doesn’t just do sports AI.
“We are also doing some basic work on academic AI. For example, in our warehouse robots, we have systems that know that we have to build a pallet, we need a box over there, they can arrange things. But all this is In this well-controlled world,” he said: “It can’t solve the uncertainty in the world.”
One way to avoid the big world when building robots is to train them in simulation. This is what Boston Dynamics did.
“We did a lot of work on simulation. I think that for many people in the artificial intelligence world, simulation is good enough as a final learning device. For the physical experiments we do, always on real robots. The combination of physical experiments and simulations. The two complement each other.”
For Boston Dynamics, the physical world is stillIt is much better than the real world, but simulation has the advantage of cost savings.
On the surface, Boston Dynamics seems to have an experienced public relations department, but Raibert said, The company doesn’t actually have a real public relations department. However, somehow, Boston-powered videos always seem to form a viral spread. The videos linked to in this article have a total of more than 65 million views on YouTube.
Raibert said: “We built a brand through YouTube, which is very interesting.” “This is great for the company. We don’t need to introduce ourselves from scratch, (and the cost is very low). We are robotic fanatics Fans. We are not just companies that want to make money. We do this because the challenge we face is to understand the key factors in humans and animals that make them so active in the world. This is a huge The challenge. Our long-term goal is to create robots that can cope with this challenge. Commercialization is one thing in the development process, putting robots in the hands of others, not just in our own hands, this is really Interesting, this provides usability testing and robustness testing for the work we do, and we are excited about it.”
In a nutshell, “When you do this kind of work, you want to show people what you are doing, and I think this is the real motivation,” he said.
Someone criticized Boston Dynamics’ video for not showing that someone is controlling the robot. These videos do not have any technical details. They are obviously destined to become viral. There is a trade-off here.
“In the early days, we showed that robots do a lot of tasks in the world. Some people think that they are completely autonomous, but they are not. There are human beings in operation, although many are independent. We just want to prove that we have created The robot of the leg can climb the muddy hills, which is the message we want to convey. If you watch the recent video, you will find that we have added more words to describe its autonomy. But we don’t want to become technology. Papers. People often post video with narration robots. No one looks. No one pays attention to them because they are drowning in the technical details that most people don’t care about.”
Raibert said that although “the business world is about opportunity-first”, his employees are not. “We are robot-first.”