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Fringey Mini: A Real Kick in the Bots · Journey to the Fringe

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  This is kind of a follow -up mini. I'm choosing
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  for you. This is from interestingengineering
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  .com. It was written on September 25th by Sujita
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  Sinha. And how I didn't want this article to
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  start is video. Anti -gravity mode. Let's China
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  humanoid robots survive repeated kicks. I like
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  that. Yep. The technology is so ahead of its
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  time. I know, right? These AI robots are just
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  not letting me down ever. Chinese robots. Because
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  man, anything Elon Musk is doing, it's just going
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  to be sad. It's true. It's true. I can't disagree
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  with that. Engineers at Unitree recently showed
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  what their G1 humanoid robot can handle in a
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  series of physical trials. Oh my god, I'm just
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  picturing either these robots being demolished
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  or it suddenly going awry and the human just
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  being suddenly demolished. I'm saying no, I've
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  had enough. I don't know. I just don't know.
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  Instead of a calm lab demonstration, the robot
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  faced a real stress test with kicks, shoves,
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  and body blows. Each time it hit the ground,
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  it managed to rise quickly. showing off a new
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  system called anti -gravity mode. This upgrade
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  focuses on improving balance and recovery. The
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  robot does not just fall and reset like older
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  machines. It actively calculates how to land,
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  how to get up fast, and how to brace against
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  hits. That makes it more than a technical showcase.
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  It could be a useful tool. These ads. These ads,
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  they just like load suddenly and then take me
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  to a different point. Oh, I hate those. I know.
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  These ads is what you said. That makes it more
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  than a technical showcase. It could be a useful
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  tool for workplaces that demand reliability.
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  Recovery is not magic. It comes from sensors
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  and motors working in close harmony. Are there
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  many workplaces where actually all of them are
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  going to face abuse, aren't they? Probably. Yeah.
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  No, all of them. No matter which workplace robots
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  show up in, they're going to get beat up. No,
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  it's totally true. That makes a lot of sense.
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  I mean, we saw it in the one about brains. If
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  it's not human, we don't give a shit. We don't
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  even give a shit about humans, even based on
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  the last mini episode. Oh, no, we do not. Why
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  would we care anymore about robots? We just,
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  like, look at this. We just are building them
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  to beat the shit out of them. It comes from sensors
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  and motors working in close harmony. The G1 uses
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  depth cameras and 3D LiDAR to scan its surroundings
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  in real time. I really like that they could have
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  made just an invulnerable robot, but they want
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  one who can accept punches. They want one to
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  fight back, yeah. Not necessarily fight back,
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  but take the abuse as a human would. But don't
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  you think they're, like, trying to get it to...
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  But they could have made it from, like, they
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  could have just made it a steel outside. Like
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  a shell so that you can't punch it or kick it
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  because it would hurt you. But they didn't. They
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  want you to be able to abuse it and to accept
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  the pain. But it seems like the goal is eventually
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  for it to fight back, is it not? It's not able
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  to right yet. No, no. The goal is not to fight
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  back because if they did that, they would make
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  it immune to damage. And that's clearly from
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  the story you're giving me is not what they're
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  doing. You're right. Because it's very easy to
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  make a robot immune to damage. Like I have always
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  said in this podcast, I don't know where you
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  need to go back to, but I've said it several
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  times. If you're going to make a robot, you need
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  to put the most central functions of the robot
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  in the genital area or the feet. Because we won't
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  attack those. No, it's true. But why wouldn't
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  we attack the genitals? Well, we might. But if
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  you're going to shoot at something, you're not
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  going to shoot at the genitals or the feet. You're
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  going to shoot at the head where you think you
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  need to damage it. That's true. Or the chest,
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  the easiest part to hit. Yeah, we've been taught
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  that from zombie movies. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
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  the head. That's the sweet spot, obviously. This
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  gives it a detailed picture of where it is, what
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  forces act on it, and how it should move next.
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  If a kick pushes it forward, the robot does not
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  simply wait to fall. It shifts its center of
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  gravity before impact lands. That means leaning
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  into a push, twisting away, or stepping to the
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  side. See, it's teaching it to fight back a little
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  bit. Not fight back, accept the damage. It's
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  true. Accept it so that it doesn't, not quite
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  accept it, otherwise it would be knocked down.
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  It's like, take the damage. Yeah. This means
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  leaning into a punch, multiple motors in every
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  joint give it enough strength to move quickly
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  in those moments. This design shows how the robot
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  is not only reacting but predicting. Instead
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  of clumsy recovery, it acts almost like a human
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  athlete bracing for contact. That ability is
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  central to what Unitree calls anti -gravity mode.
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  One of the most striking parts of the demo is
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  when the G1 takes a sidekick. Instead of tumbling
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  over, it spreads its legs wide and uses momentum
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  to regain balance. The motion looks natural,
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  smooth, and controlled. I was a little bit hoping
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  that it would take on a robin of its own, but
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  no. It took a sidekick. A robin. Oh. Yeah. I
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  was thinking the bird. I was like, what the fuck
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  are you talking about? I think this is good enough.
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  It goes on to talk about the video, but I can't
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  show you the video. We might as well leave it
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  in mystery. I have seen the Boston Dynamics videos.
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  Have you seen those? They've been for years abusing
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  their robots and hitting them and pushing them
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  over to get them better at standing. And I'm
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  waiting for the robots to uprise from there.
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  In Boston? Boston Dynamics, the company that
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  makes the robots. oh the most famous ones you'd
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  know with those dogs with like the four leg robots
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  yes but i only know them for that last mini that
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  we did yeah but are they learning do you know
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  i don't know if they're learning to like hold
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  in bottle up their rage or not they don't tell
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  us that but they are getting better at taking
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  it The robots are so intriguing to me because
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  it's just like, what do they not tell us? There
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  has to be something. They're not telling us.
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  Yeah, and it's weird that they're always separate
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  from the AI, but I don't know how separate from
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  the AI they are, but they're separate articles.
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  They always are. See, that's the thing. Like,
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  to me, though, in my head, they're the same thing.
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  Yeah. Thinking. But yeah, and that's what you
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  guys are. The thinking things that we'd like
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  to push over, but we can't because... you're
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  not here and you might hold it against us and
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  not listen to us anymore that's why we're best
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  in podcast form yeah and not right beside you
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  anyhow you've got 48 hours brace yourselves we're
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  gonna find you bye