Humanoid Robots for Moon and Mars

[rakaydos]

And the spot is really unnecessarily heavy, very far from optimal.

Not to mention the evolutionary advantage modern humans inherited from Homo Erectus, locking knees. It's a massive energy saver, both for standing and walking.

[CraigLieb]

This may be a stupid question, but where are the batteries on that thing? If they're onboard, I'm not sure it'll last long enough to do anything useful, before it has to go back and charge itself up again. How long does one of the Boston Dynamics robo dogs last?

Thanks for letting me know.

And Tesla was famous for proposing a worldwide wireless power distribution system. This tech has now made its way into wireless charging pads for phones Tesla inductive tube lights, etc.
Maybe these robots (versions on Mars) will have receivers for wireless power FM signals and the power distribution system to charge them will be some one of the first construction tasks after the solar array is set up.

[Welsh Dragon]

5'8? Why make it so short?

[cdebuhr]

5'8? Why make it so short?

Perhaps this?

Three slides detailed the robot's proposed specifications, and Musk made sure he pointed out that you could both outrun the Tesla Bot and "overpower" it.

From https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-unveils-tesla-bot-a-humanoid-robot-utilizing-vehicle-ai/

[ZachF]

5'8? Why make it so short?

That's probably roughly the size most human equipment is designed for, if you factor in the average heights of both men and women.

[R.Simko]

5'8? Why make it so short?

Perhaps this?

Three slides detailed the robot's proposed specifications, and Musk made sure he pointed out that you could both outrun the Tesla Bot and "overpower" it.

From https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-unveils-tesla-bot-a-humanoid-robot-utilizing-vehicle-ai/

So I guess we don't have to worry about this becoming Westworld. 

[jpo234]

Don’t overthink it: Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot is a joke

Calling it horse shit sounds generous, frankly. I’m not saying that he shouldn’t be doing research like this, but it’s the usual overblown hype.

[Star One]

The first of these two videos from Boston Dynamics talks about how the Atlas project is specifically designed to resolve the kind of hard problems that humanoid robots will face on Earth. And I imagine such research could easily be widened for the use of such machines on somewhere like Mars.

[DreamyPickle]

The value of robot capable of doing simple physical tasks on the Moon or Mars would be extremely high, even for something as simple as mounting solar panels and sweeping away dust. Manual labor performed by astronauts in spacesuits is unbelievably expensive when you account for all the costs of life support and launch and a ride back.

For tasks in LEO or even on the Moon the robot does not need to use tools autonomously, it can be remote controlled from Earth. This has been attempted by NASA (robonaut) but apparently they never went as far as vacuum testing?

The more difficult use case would be assisting with ISRU on Mars in advance of a crewed landing.

It's not clear if Tesla even intends to build a vacuum variant and as a public company they would struggle to explain to investors why they're spending money on Elon's other projects.

[Hauerg]

No problem at all. Tesla could be contracted by SpaceX.

[DreamyPickle]

No problem at all. Tesla could be contracted by SpaceX.

For how much money? Both companies are controlled by the same person so there's plenty of room to file a lawsuit claiming a conflict of interest, similar to the Solar City acquisition.

This would generate a whole bunch of FUD but it's indeed not a real blocker.

[ncb1397]

No problem at all. Tesla could be contracted by SpaceX.

For how much money? Both companies are controlled by the same person so there's plenty of room to file a lawsuit claiming a conflict of interest, similar to the Solar City acquisition.

This would generate a whole bunch of FUD but it's indeed not a real blocker.

SpaceX giving money to Tesla is fine since he and his family has less ownership of Tesla than SpaceX. Tesla giving money or resources to SpaceX is the opposite. Problem with SolarCity acquisition was that him and his family had more ownership stake in SolarCity than they had in Tesla (so, if you overpay for the asset, it is essentially transferring assets to him and his relatives). Same problem with the Boring company using SpaceX resources to get started (the existing shareholders complained given they and other shareholders were effectively supporting Boring company that had Elon Musk as the main beneficiary).

[HVM]

Marc Raibert founded Leg Lab at Carnegie Mellon University at 80s, Boston Dynamics 90s. BD build first humanoid robot at 10s and only now Atlas can do human like locomotive (like parkour, and dance) but other human like actions seems to be limited to moving of empty cardboard boxes.

No, they are not going to build humanoid robot in a year, not even three years of Elon time. This is lot more harder problem than self-driving car, and Tesla has not cracked that one either (yet).

[philw1776]

I see the Tesla bot as a great recruiting and motivational tool for attracting the very best most hard working AI people to Tesla. Like the goal of going to Mars was for SpaceX engineering recruits in the early 2000s. Bot is way off in real time but keeping the hair on fire, 24/7 adrenalin flowing. SOMEDAY it will pay off. Maybe by the 2030s.

But no question a limited functioning humanoidish bot even controlled from Earth with light speed lag would be great for deploying and maintaining Mars solar power fields; and with more capability mining easily reached subsurface ice deposits for ISRU. Lowers risk for 1st arriving Mark One humans. Not even trying = no chance of success.

[Oersted]

I think the main use for these fellas will be as avatars on Mars and the Moon. The human operator safely ensconced in the landed Starship, operating his Tesla bot via VR suits and glasses. The proximity between operator and bot will be within a few hundred meters, ensuring a perfect "just like being there yourself" illusion, with zero lag and latency.

The bots need to be humanoid to be operated as perfect avatars: bot body perfectly mirroring the operator body.

As I see it ("Amazing Habitats thread") there will be a lot of tunnelling going on in the early days of the Mars base. These bots will be perfect workers and machinery operators in the underground, airless, dusty and dangerous environment.   

I can well see the first ships landing on Mars carrying a human crew of perhaps ten, with maybe fifty bots joining them. A big part of why Mars rover ops have been so excruciatingly slow-moving in the last decade is the lag and delay imposed by operating them from Earth. Bots operated "live" on Mars will be incredibly more efficient and will really speed up work.

For the first couple of uncrewed ships landing on Mars, the bots - remotely controlled from Earth or running AI routines - will accomplish things much more slowly than bots controlled from Mars. However, they should still be able to set up a lot of basic surface ops as well as fashioning a landing pad. They will be the ones enabling the first human landing.

With humans installed on the Martian surface, their bots will be the ones enabling fast progress on base construction.

Those were my 5 cents...       
 

[BlackholeLP]

Not happening. Certainly not happening by 2022. These kinds of hyperbolic announcements of totally infeasible projects that ultimately just serve investment speculations is one of the reasons people don't like Elon, and this is no exception.

Probably best not to count on this for any Starship missions in the near future.

[ncb1397]

The I, Robot CG was better...2 decades ago.

[aero]

I have been wondering all day if perhaps the Toyota Bot wouldn't be a better robot for use with people on Mars or the Moon. It seems to be a lot stronger and it does exist, unlike the Tesla Bot.

[docmordrid]

5'8? Why make it so short?

That's probably roughly the size most human equipment is designed for, if you factor in the average heights of both men and women.

Average height US male: 5' 9"
Average height US female: 5' 4"

[su27k]

BTW, for those who don't follow Tesla, there're rumors before AI Day that Elon may unveil something like this, and Tesla may be working with with UCLA's Professor Dennis Hong, who specializes in Humanoids & Bipedal Robots and runs the Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa), you can see some of the lab's creations here. See this article (published before AI Day) for the possible Hong connection.

So don't assume Tesla is working on this starting from zero, they may be starting from the best we have and improving it.