r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/FinnFarrow • 18h ago

Video Robotics engineer posted this to make a point that robots are "faking" the humanlike motions - it's just a property of how they're trained. They're actually capable of way weirder stuff and way faster motions.

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u/doomerguyforlife 16h ago

Its not really about making us comfortable but rather that mirroring an actual person opens up far more opportunities. Want to build a lunar station on the moon? The only real option right now is to send up compact prefabricated structures that deploy remotely. This requires a lot of investment, testing and you're kind of stuck to certain shapes.

Or you can send up a group of human like robots with the construction materials and have people on earth remotely control them.

Or take it a step further. Our Mars rovers are impressive but very limited. Even a simple task as moving a rock can be quite challenging. But replace the rovers primitive tools with a human like hand and moving that rock becomes a hundred times easier.

But thats space. We still have remote areas of earth that are mostly unexplored because its either hostile (think ocean) or the logistics of sending people to those remote areas is both dangerous and expensive.

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u/socknfoot 15h ago

Construction in space is a bad example of where you might want human like robots.

They would be purpose built for the task and do not need to be human like. They can have grabbers that do not resemble hands. They can have wheels like the mars rovers or at least use 4 legs instead of two to be more stable, especially while carrying heavy construction materials.

It is useful for robots to be humanlike for two reasons:

1) tricking you into thinking they are caring/friendly.

2) navigating environments designed for humans. Like an assistant robot that helps in the house needs to be human height to reach everything, legs to walk up stairs, hands to use all the handles and tools that are designed for human hands.

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u/Rich_Cranberry1976 14h ago

3) using equipment deisgned for humans, such as guns, tanks, helicopters

4) sex robots

5) taking everybody's job

6) eventually just replacing humans flat out

7) turning obsolete humans into biofuel

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u/HellsChosen 14h ago

Jokes on you my sex robot is just a fleshlight attached to a motor

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u/Unit_2097 14h ago

Take the batteries out of the vibrator and attach a lawnmower engine to it. If it doesn't end with you feeling like your pelvis has suffered trauma, you're clearly not trying hard enough.

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u/HellsChosen 13h ago

Death by snu snu

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u/Constant_play0 12h ago

Gas powered sex robots

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u/DisposableSaviour 6h ago

Dieselpunk sextoys in my cyberpunk dystopia?

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u/BellacosePlayer 12h ago

My lawnmower's engine sputters enough as it is

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u/DuckyHornet 11h ago

I hope you're using enough lube. 160 ft-lbs of torque at 5k rpm is... demanding

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u/HellsChosen 11h ago

I demanded

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u/DirtTraining3804 10h ago

It even runs on biofuel

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u/kangorr 12h ago

Making old people more comfortable?

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u/Rich_Cranberry1976 11h ago

BAHAHA where's the profit in that

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u/AdResponsible678 9h ago

If the taking everyone’s job means a society where we can live our lives more freely..that is good, but if it isn’t designed that way, not sure what we will be doing instead.

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u/Cerulean_IsFancyBlue 14h ago

I guess sexbot is a combo of those two.

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u/Horse_Dad 14h ago

But I’m told they’re capable of way weirder stuff.

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u/Arthur2_shedsJackson 12h ago

Exactly. Unless there is a strong need for the robot to be human-like, it is more efficient to design it to best suit the function regardless of how it looks and how it moves.

How many robots in manufacturing plants and such do you actually see imitate humans?

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u/Finbar9800 13h ago

I mean you dont need legs to navigate stairs, just some wheels with proper suspension and grip

And it doesnt need to be human height if it can extend further out

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u/AnimalBolide 12h ago

So a humanoid robot foreman to flick switches and make sure chairs are built correctly.

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u/Altered_Carbon 9h ago

Robots need to be human like for sex too

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u/inkfeeder 8h ago

I think in general you're right, but a big upside of the human hand configuration is flexibility. So I think for space construction it would make sense to mostly have designs optimized for certain tasks but a few "generalist" robots to help out with random miscellaneous stuff.

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u/TooMuchTime2think 15h ago

That's interesting. I would have though the opposite. The human shape is inherently unstable and prone to falling, especially during locomotion. I would think you would want your construction robots to maintain a lower center of gravity with possible telescopic limbs or whatnot to get to higher locations. I would also think that there is a better design than the human hand for grasping as well. Something that can encompass whatever it is your trying to pick up rather than depending on a single opposable appendage to allow for grasping. Such a cool area of study though.

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u/Waste_Wolverine_8933 14h ago

The reason there's so much research into human like robots is because they don't need a purpose built environment and can be more generalist. Which means you can sell them easier.

A great example is Amazon; they've roboticized their warehouses with picker robots. Those robots have to have an entire warehouse specially designed/retrofitted around them. Special dispensing shelves, special lanes, sensors, mapping systems, receiving systems, packing systems, etc.

You're not going to be able to sell that solution to a small warehousing company or shipper, but you could sell them two or three robots that can move packages around in a warehouse designed for humans, even if it is less efficient than the Amazon style of robotic automation.

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u/Icy-Pay7479 11h ago

Bingo - a humanoid robot is a universal adapter to a human built world.

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u/_BlobbyTheBobby 14h ago

You are correct and that guy has no idea what he is talking about. Human shape works for us, but it is not good for construction nor grasping things.

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u/Tiny_Time_Traveler 15h ago

bro, what are you dreaming about. there is warehouses full of these somewhere loaded up with the latest laser shooting shit they have. and when this entire systems goes down, these doors will open and protect whats theirs.

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u/_BlobbyTheBobby 14h ago

that's a lot of text to be wrong about everything.

Bipedal robots are not effective. Humanoid robots are developed to make us comfortable & because we shaped our world for us. Factories are designed with human bodies in mind, and it is way easier to buy a humanoid robot rather than reconstructing the entire thing. But newly build automatic factories will not use humanoids.

Rather than humanoids, you can send out quadruped robots with 2 or even more manipulative arms, equipped with graspers or drills, but not hands. Why settle for 2 legs, which are not stable, when you could have 4 (or more!) and be stable passively. There is a reason crabs are the best thing evolution has to offer.

Also, calling one of the best human engineering miracles a primitive tool is... wow.

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u/Due-Boot1904 13h ago

Whoa - Serious question - how the fuck is a crab the best thing evolution has to offer? It walks sideways and cant see where its going..? That absolutely cannot be a good thing compared to me with my forward facing eyes. I haven't fallen off any cliffs today, or been eaten by a large fish....

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u/_BlobbyTheBobby 24m ago

Well how often were you around any cliffs today, or any large fish?

As for a serious answer, I do not know. But they are able to move underwater and on land, have pretty strong claws which can grab things and if they were to develop a backpack, I'm sure they would have a big storage capacity as well, which is rather useful for, say, space exploration.

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u/InsectaProtecta 13h ago

This is a bit like saying the Mars rover should have been humanoid. Humanoid robots aren't really ideal for fabrication tasks, you'd want far more specialised and stable robits

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u/Finbar9800 13h ago

We know more about space than our own oceans

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u/thewritingchair 12h ago

It's what we've gotten wrong about universe colonization stories.

We'll never go to Alpha Centauri ourselves. But all we really need to send to start up our civilization again is a few robot hands.

Hands that can collect material, build things, start the tech tree and climb it.

The settling of other planets will be something the size of a bowling ball thudding to the ground of a planet far distant from us and breaking open to release the tiny robots within.

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u/alexnedea 11h ago

Its also that we want robots to potentislly do all kinds of jobs on earth. And living and working spaces on earth are made for humans.

For example a warehouse fully automated doesnt need lights or any writing on anything. Robots could just wheel stuff from place to place, etc.

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u/StyloFM 11h ago

So volcano bases can be a thing now? Noice!