Close Menu
Ztoog
    What's Hot
    AI

    This AI Paper from NTU and Apple Unveils OGEN: A Novel AI Approach for Boosting Out-of-Domain Generalization in Vision-Language Models

    Crypto

    Former web3 gaming founders raise $2.5M for their NFT marketplace to retain users even when there ‘isn’t money to be made’

    AI

    Foundation model with adaptive computation and dynamic read-and-write – Google Research Blog

    Important Pages:
    • About Us
    • Contact us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    Ztoog
    • Home
    • The Future

      How I Turn Unstructured PDFs into Revenue-Ready Spreadsheets

      Is it the best tool for 2025?

      The clocks that helped define time from London’s Royal Observatory

      Summer Movies Are Here, and So Are the New Popcorn Buckets

      India-Pak conflict: Pak appoints ISI chief, appointment comes in backdrop of the Pahalgam attack

    • Technology

      Ensure Hard Work Is Recognized With These 3 Steps

      Cicada map 2025: Where will Brood XIV cicadas emerge this spring?

      Is Duolingo the face of an AI jobs crisis?

      The US DOD transfers its AI-based Open Price Exploration for National Security program to nonprofit Critical Minerals Forum to boost Western supply deals (Ernest Scheyder/Reuters)

      The more Google kills Fitbit, the more I want a Fitbit Sense 3

    • Gadgets

      Maono Caster G1 Neo & PD200X Review: Budget Streaming Gear for Aspiring Creators

      Apple plans to split iPhone 18 launch into two phases in 2026

      Upgrade your desk to Starfleet status with this $95 USB-C hub

      37 Best Graduation Gift Ideas (2025): For College Grads

      Backblaze responds to claims of “sham accounting,” customer backups at risk

    • Mobile

      Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge promo materials leak

      What are people doing with those free T-Mobile lines? Way more than you’d expect

      Samsung doesn’t want budget Galaxy phones to use exclusive AI features

      COROS’s charging adapter is a neat solution to the smartwatch charging cable problem

      Fortnite said to return to the US iOS App Store next week following court verdict

    • Science

      Failed Soviet probe will soon crash to Earth – and we don’t know where

      Trump administration cuts off all future federal funding to Harvard

      Does kissing spread gluten? New research offers a clue.

      Why Balcony Solar Panels Haven’t Taken Off in the US

      ‘Dark photon’ theory of light aims to tear up a century of physics

    • AI

      How to build a better AI benchmark

      Q&A: A roadmap for revolutionizing health care through data-driven innovation | Ztoog

      This data set helps researchers spot harmful stereotypes in LLMs

      Making AI models more trustworthy for high-stakes settings | Ztoog

      The AI Hype Index: AI agent cyberattacks, racing robots, and musical models

    • Crypto

      ‘The Big Short’ Coming For Bitcoin? Why BTC Will Clear $110,000

      Bitcoin Holds Above $95K Despite Weak Blockchain Activity — Analytics Firm Explains Why

      eToro eyes US IPO launch as early as next week amid easing concerns over Trump’s tariffs

      Cardano ‘Looks Dope,’ Analyst Predicts Big Move Soon

      Speak at Ztoog Disrupt 2025: Applications now open

    Ztoog
    Home » Humanoid robots are learning to fall well
    Technology

    Humanoid robots are learning to fall well

    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp
    Humanoid robots are learning to fall well
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest WhatsApp

    The savvy entrepreneurs at Boston Dynamics produced two main robotics information cycles final week. The bigger of the 2 was, naturally, the electrical Atlas announcement. As I write this, the sub-40 second video is steadily approaching 5 million views. A day prior, the corporate tugged on the group’s coronary heart strings when it introduced that the unique hydraulic Atlas was being put out to pasture, a decade after its introduction.

    The accompanying video was a celebration of the older Atlas’ journey from DARPA analysis venture to an impressively nimble bipedal ’bot. A minute in, nonetheless, the tone shifts. Ultimately, “Farewell to Atlas” is as a lot a celebration as it’s a blooper reel. It’s a welcome reminder that for each time the robotic sticks the touchdown on video there are dozens of slips, falls and sputters.

    Image Credits: Boston Dynamics

    I’ve lengthy championed this type of transparency. It’s the type of factor I would really like to see extra from the robotics world. Simply showcasing the spotlight reel does a disservice to the trouble that went into getting these pictures. In many instances, we’re speaking years of trial and error spent getting robots to look good on digicam. When you solely share the optimistic outcomes, you’re setting unrealistic expectations. Bipedal robots fall over. In that respect, a minimum of, they’re similar to us. As Agility put it just lately, “Everyone falls sometimes, it’s how we get back up that defines us.” I might take {that a} step additional, including that learning how to fall well is equally essential.

    The firm’s newly appointed CTO, Pras Velagapudi, just lately advised me that seeing robots fall on the job at this stage is definitely a great factor. “When a robot is actually out in the world doing real things, unexpected things are going to happen,” he notes. “You’re going to see some falls, but that’s part of learning to run a really long time in real-world environments. It’s expected, and it’s a sign that you’re not staging things.”

    A fast scan of Harvard’s guidelines for falling with out harm displays what we intuitively perceive about falling as people:

    1. Protect your head
    2. Use your weight to direct your fall
    3. Bend your knees
    4. Avoid taking different individuals with you

    As for robots, this IEEE Spectrum piece from final 12 months is a good place to begin.

    “We’re not afraid of a fall—we’re not treating the robots like they’re going to break all the time,” Boston Dynamics CTO Aaron Saunders advised the publication final 12 months. “Our robot falls a lot, and one of the things we decided a long time ago [is] that we needed to build robots that can fall without breaking. If you can go through that cycle of pushing your robot to failure, studying the failure, and fixing it, you can make progress to where it’s not falling. But if you build a machine or a control system or a culture around never falling, then you’ll never learn what you need to learn to make your robot not fall. We celebrate falls, even the falls that break the robot.”

    Image Credits: Boston Dynamics

    The topic of falling additionally got here up once I spoke with Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter forward of the electrical Atlas’ launch. Notably, the quick video begins with the robotic in a susceptible place. The means the robotic’s legs arc round is kind of novel, permitting the system to get up from a totally flat place. At first look, it virtually feels as if the corporate is displaying off, utilizing the flashy transfer merely as a way to showcase the extraordinarily sturdy custom-built actuators.

    “There will be very practical uses for that,” Playter advised me. “Robots are going to fall. You’d better be able to get up from prone.” He provides that the power to rise up from a susceptible place may additionally be helpful for charging functions.

    Much of Boston Dynamics’ learnings round falling got here from Spot. While there’s typically extra stability within the quadrupedal type issue (as evidenced from many years making an attempt and failing to kick the robots over in movies), there are merely far more hours of Spot robots working in real-world circumstances.

    Image Credits: Agility Robotics

    “Spot’s walking something like 70,000 kms a year on factory floors, doing about 100,000 inspections per month,” provides Playter. “They do fall, eventually. You have to be able to get back up. Hopefully you get your fall rate down — we have. I think we’re falling once every 100-200 kms. The fall rate has really gotten small, but it does happen.”

    Playter provides that the corporate has an extended historical past of being “rough” on its robots. “They fall, and they’ve got to be able to survive. Fingers can’t fall off.”

    Watching the above Atlas outtakes, it’s arduous not to venture a little bit of human empathy onto the ’bot. It actually does seem to fall like a human, drawing its extremities as shut to its physique as potential, to defend them from additional harm.

    With a 99% success fee over about 20 hours of stay demos, Digit nonetheless took a few falls at ProMat.

    We haven’t any proof, however we predict our gross sales crew orchestrated it so they may discuss Digits quick-change limbs and sturdiness. #ConspiracyTheories pic.twitter.com/aqC5rhvBTj

    — Agility Robotics (@agilityrobotics) April 6, 2023

    When Agility added arms to Digit, again in 2019, it mentioned the function they play in falling. “For us, arms are simultaneously a tool for moving through the world — think getting up after a fall, waving your arms for balance, or pushing open a door — while also being useful for manipulating or carrying objects,” co-founder Jonathan Hurst famous on the time.

    I spoke a bit to Agility in regards to the matter at Modex earlier this 12 months. Video of a Digit robotic falling over on a conference flooring a 12 months prior had made the social media rounds. “With a 99% success rate over about 20 hours of live demos, Digit still took a couple of falls at ProMat,” Agility famous on the time. “We have no proof, but we think our sales team orchestrated it so they could talk about Digits quick-change limbs and durability.”

    As with the Atlas video, the corporate advised me that one thing akin to a fetal place is helpful when it comes to defending the robotic’s legs and arms.

    The firm has been utilizing reinforcement learning to assist fallen robots proper themselves. Agility shut off Digit’s impediment avoidance for the above video to power a fall. In the video, the robotic makes use of its arms to mitigate the fall as a lot as potential. It then makes use of its reinforcement learnings to return to a well-recognized place from which it’s able to standing once more with a robotic pushup.

    One of humanoid robots’ most important promoting factors is their capacity to slot into present workflows — these factories and warehouses are referred to as “brownfield,” which means they weren’t {custom} constructed for automation. In many present instances of manufacturing unit automation, errors imply the system successfully shuts down till a human intervenes.

    “Rescuing a humanoid robot is not going to be trivial,” says Playter, noting that these methods are heavy and could be tough to manually proper. “How are you going to do that if it can’t get itself off the ground?”

    If these methods are really going to guarantee uninterrupted automation, they’ll want to fall well and get proper again up once more.

    “Every time Digit falls, we learn something new,” provides Velagapudi. “When it comes to bipedal robotics, falling is a wonderful teacher.”

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp

    Related Posts

    Technology

    Ensure Hard Work Is Recognized With These 3 Steps

    Technology

    Cicada map 2025: Where will Brood XIV cicadas emerge this spring?

    Technology

    Is Duolingo the face of an AI jobs crisis?

    Technology

    The US DOD transfers its AI-based Open Price Exploration for National Security program to nonprofit Critical Minerals Forum to boost Western supply deals (Ernest Scheyder/Reuters)

    Technology

    The more Google kills Fitbit, the more I want a Fitbit Sense 3

    Technology

    Sorry Shoppers, Amazon Says Tariff Cost Feature ‘Is Not Going to Happen’

    Technology

    Vibe Coding, Vibe Checking, and Vibe Blogging – O’Reilly

    Technology

    Robot Videos: Cargo Robots, Robot Marathons, and More

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    Follow Us
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    Top Posts
    AI

    Top Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools for Image Creation

    In digital creativity, AI has ushered in an period the place producing intricate and visually…

    Technology

    Former NASA administrator hates Artemis, wants to party like it’s 2008

    Enlarge / Mike Griffin’s plan for a quick Moon return would use two upgraded SLS…

    Gadgets

    MoonSwatch Mission to Neptune 2023: Price, Details, Release Date

    The indisputable fact that Daniel Craig confirmed up at a movie premiere rocking one with…

    Science

    The US Has Big Plans for Wind Energy—but an Obscure 1920s Law Is Getting in the Way

    The motive for the Jones Act’s longevity, says Colin Grabow, a analysis fellow at the…

    Mobile

    Batterygate returns as Apple must defend throttling the iPhone in U.K. court

    Back in 2016, house owners of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, and…

    Our Picks
    Mobile

    Unannounced Oppo pops up on TENAA. Could be the Oppo A2

    Crypto

    Worldcoin fails to get injunction against Spain’s privacy suspension

    Science

    AI cannot be used to deny health care coverage, feds clarify to insurers

    Categories
    • AI (1,482)
    • Crypto (1,744)
    • Gadgets (1,796)
    • Mobile (1,839)
    • Science (1,853)
    • Technology (1,789)
    • The Future (1,635)
    Most Popular
    Technology

    Trade business software provider ServiceTitan offers an IPO share price range at $52-$57 and plans to buy back the shares of its non-convertible preferred stock (Julie Bort/Ztoog)

    AI

    A computer scientist pushes the boundaries of geometry | Ztoog

    Mobile

    This special edition Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is hard to come by, for now

    Ztoog
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • Home
    • About Us
    • Contact us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions
    © 2025 Ztoog.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.