Optimus: the Tesla robot, hype or the real deal?
Centipede Elon Musk can once again string a new product to his triumphal cart, the robot Optimus. Optimus is very similar to a human and can broadly do what humans can do in terms of motor skills. What does Optimus mean for the future?
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Baxter, the first affordable production robot
Technology is developing at an explosive pace. In 2011, the Baxter robot came on the market for 20,000 US dollars, a price that is affordable for a company. Musk now wants to mass-produce a prototype robot for a price similar to Baxter’s then $20,000. In 3-5 years, so between 2025-2028, the time has come.
Optimus becomes an autonomously moving worker robot
But the Optimus can do a lot more than this pioneering robot. Where the Baxter can only imitate movements very accurately, which is only very valuable for assembly line work, the Optimus is much more versatile. The robot can move independently through spaces and avoid obstacles. And will be equipped with impressively good artificial intelligence, so that this robot can learn and independently perform tasks such as assembling parts or doing the dishes.
A role as a home robot is probably a huge growth market, and also as a care robot or cleaning robot, for example.
Very fast progress in abilities
What also impresses robot connoisseurs is that the Optimus is advancing very quickly in its capabilities. From last year’s wooden model, it has now become an admittedly slow, but fairly smoothly moving robot. And Musk has managed to get together an enthusiastic team of smart people who, according to announcements, are highly motivated.
Why did Musk develop Optimus?
It is not clear what Musk’s deeper philosophy is to have this robot developed. In the years before that, he was more in favor of human augmentation, increasing the capacities of the human body and mind. This is to prevent humans from becoming redundant. This robot, which can easily take over production work, is a break with that. Musk himself says that he hopes that people will now have to do less stupid and boring work.
Optimus as a space worker?
He may realize that he needs large numbers of workers to put his visions of Mars and the colonization of the solar system into practice. The big advantage of a robot is that it does not need food or oxygen, only electricity. This saves life support, the most expensive, most complex and most malfunction-prone part of spaceships.
This would make life much easier for human settlers advancing or in the asteroid belt. There may also be business reasons behind it. Because there are probably hundreds of millions of households alone, who would give a lot to not have to argue about who does the dishes or vacuums. The Optimus could therefore be a smashing success.
