What strikes us at CES(Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, the world’s largest exhibition of electronic gadgets and robots), is the omnipresence, everywhere, of robots of all kinds: robots that work in factories, robots that do the dishes and warm croissants in the microwave, robots that tidy rooms, robots that cuddle lonely elderly people, robots that climb stairs, robots that play ping pong, but above all, above all, above all, robots, tons of robots doing karate, kung fu, fighting, you name it! As if humanity’s goal was to recreate in its image super strong machines destined to kick their creators in the nuts.
I vaguely read something about it. Most robot manufacturers being Chinese, having them perform karate moves or some other oriental martial art would be a form of oriental soft power to remind us Westerners that Chinese culture has more depth than ours and that their technology stems from the continuation of a millennial tradition blending philosophy and body flexibility, something like that, I didn’t understand anything, but the fact remains that, yes, many of these robot demos show them throwing kicks into space, as if that were the pinnacle of robotic technicality and the ultimate proof of progress in robotics.
Fair enough.
So, since we are virtually live from the Las Vegas show, we had the idea to offer you a little tour of these robots (Some have already been presented to you on Numerika. If you are loyal readers, you might be a little disappointed, but read this article to the end, you might be surprised).
The star of the show is obviously Atlas, who seems much better at showing off on stage than working in a factory (see our article from yesterday). I remember the first (already) impressive progress of Boston Dynamics’ robots. It is clear that BD has now managed to produce a versatile machine with impressive characteristics, but which is still in prototype stage. I always ask myself: why make versatile humanoid robots when specialized ones are much more efficient? Specialists can share their opinions in the comments.
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The T800: I don’t know much about it, except that it looks like it seriously wants to pick a fight with anyone who approaches its stand. It doesn’t look very happy. But no doubt it too will be less cocky when asked to stack windshields in a Hyundai car factory, like Atlas, the first robot in our selection.
The next robot may or may not have been at the show. But we wanted to show it to you too. Another karate-kid of chips and steel. Brrr… I wouldn’t want to meet it in a dark subway corridor at night in New York (why New York, I don’t know, but this city being known for its bad company, that’s what seemed most likely to me).
For those who don’t like dogs and prefer tin cans on wheels, Rovar X3 will fulfill all their fantasies. Perched on its two wheels, it is supposed to be able to overcome all obstacles, climb stairs (like a toad-slug), and accompany you wherever you want. Undoubtedly much more docile than a real animal, and much cuter, here’s at least one that doesn’t try to impress you with a kick or big arm circles in the air. And for good reason, it has no arms. Punishment from its creators? A true technological choice? We won’t know.
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The solitary karateka. We don’t know who this robot is, nor why after parting the crowd, it tried to perform karate moves. The fact remains that it ended badly for it and its creators vainly tried to revive it. No doubt the Las Vegas sun didn’t suit it and it suffered a small heatstroke. In any case, we undoubtedly award it the palm for laughter, as the final scene is worthy of the best French humorous cinematic productions.
See you on the last slide of this post.
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In terms of humor, this little guy has nothing to be ashamed of in his performance. In a bare-knuckle fight, if you can call it that, he found nothing better than to deliver a magnificent kick to an engineer’s groin. The funniest part? It was the engineer himself who delivered the kick. The robot here was merely reproducing his movements in real-time.
Ah, but here’s a competitor to CLOID, which I mentioned yesterday. Onero H1 opens the tap, closes it, probably also knows very well how to put croissants in the microwave, and looks like a miniature nuclear power plant ventilation tower, which is not very cool for a robot.
We conclude this thrilling report with Sharpa, the ping-pong robot, who looks as comfortable with a racket as I am with a musical instrument. After beating a human at Go, when will we see an electronic ping-pong world champion? Given Sharpa’s mobility, we can still rest on our laurels.
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Beware, Sharpa isn’t that bad! Besides playing ping pong poorly, it can fold paper very, very slowly. What a man, this robot!
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