Tesla has a lot of work to do on its Optimus robot
Tesla headlined its AI Day 2022 event on Friday with the reveal of its “Optimus” robot prototype, showing just how much work was left to do on the project., the lumbering mess of cables was far from the sleek and sexy design faithful Muskites might expect from the EV maker.:"I do want to set some expectations with respect to our Optimus robot.
But in a world accustomed to the back-flipping bots of Boston Dynamics, Optimus was less than impressive. A mechanical engineer stepped in to inform the audience that this was the first time the robot was run"without any backup support – cranes, mechanical mechanisms, no cables, nothing."The prototype managed to rotate its arms, then tottered to the forefront to give the audience a wave, before walking back as a screen failed to close.
The event then showed videos of the robot picking up and putting down objects, and watering plants."What you saw ... was our rough development robot using semi-off-the-shelf actuators. But ... we actually have an Optimus bot with fully Tesla-designed and built actuators, battery pack, control system, everything."
This version, which was then pushed onto the stage, was a little more"Tesla" – slimmer, neater, shinier. Only one problem: it can't walk."I think it will walk in a few weeks," Musk said,"but we wanted to show you something that's fairly close to what will go into production." Clumsily wheeled out by staff, it also managed a couple more waves and did the splits from the rod on which it was mounted.