[xor99]

Robotics is not a software problem and SV companies bias is towards software development (a little different with X but still apparent). I think most companies that try to throw data at existing problems in robotics using existing machines will have a hard time matching human efficiency. For example, in something as straightforward as the usb insertion task.

Hardware and mechanical is like 95% of the problem so there's a need to take the approach of making the machines that make and then add the software on top and developing synthetic task orientated data from that. E.g. the dishwasher, which works because its physically designed for washing plates and then automation was added. The robot arm is a general purpose technology that has been around in the same form since the 60s/70s. There are many options as alternatives (e.g. magnetic assembly or even self-assembly in certain industries) but ofc these are incredibly risky commercially.

I'm aware that this is just the first post and the above is well known in robotics development so excited to see what gets built!

[YetAnotherNick]

But it is a software problem. Surprised that you mentioned robotic arm, which is basically just 3-5 servo/stepper motors connected to case and not super complicated to build with 3d printers. It's the software that powers it. Boston dynamics robots are not the top of the line in terms of hardware. It is the software that gives their robot the power to even stand up, which anyone who has coded the robot knows it only looks easy.

[gopalv]

> But it is a software problem.

There is a software authoring problem (which is where the ML bits are crucial).

If we had to program all robots like we had to with CNC machines, then programming them would be a high skill problem, even if we throw a lot of tools at it.

I can work my way through a Tormach, but is that really what I want to spend time with? The ultra low level specification of what I need done?

I'd love a pedal based training system with something like "Identify", "Orient", "Place", "Count", "Test" to teach it things in steps & get a program out of the demonstration (that donut computer vision project was amazing, because it showed you didn't really need ML to do these things).

Like we have people who are demonstration learners, I wish I could do something like that of going from many scenarios to a final one and have the robot to dissect every one of my actions into a flow-chart of its own.

[xor99]

Sure software is crucial to the final working of the robot and it's not solely all in the physical design. Robots are not possible without software but I think the fundamental problem in robotics for manufacture is about physical intelligence and industrial design and engineering.

My approach would be to manufacture custom arms for particular tasks and in principle 3d printing the arms is exactly what i'm getting at (e.g. that optimised physical design processes save on cost and improves performance much more than software + expensive externally manufactured arms). 3D printed arms with comparable repeat accuracy would be an excellent optimisation over buying v expensive Kuka products. Then you could start think about different mechanisms (compliant mech, soft parts etc) and control systems/software.

Kukas are not really just a couple of servos (e.g. encoders) and there are many examples from the 90s of self walking robots with little software too. There's good literature on "morphological computation" or Rolf Pfeifer's book How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence.

[glitchc]

Why does it have to be servos in the first place? A very narrow way to think of robotics. Boston Dynamics is more about the hw than the sw.

[zone411]

Human tactile sensing is still much superior to that of robot hands.

[sangnoir]

I'd say it's very different with X. I looked at the large number of hardware design docs that were open-sourced[1] when they shut down Makani - hell, even the Makani documentary[2] was mostly about hardware (material science, mechanics, aerodynamics) with a some software sprinkled in.

1. https://github.com/google/makani

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd_hEja6bzE