After dancing and folding laundry, Optimus now knows how to catch a tennis ball. This Thursday, November 28, Elon Musk shared a video to show the new capabilities of his company Tesla’s humanoid robot and congratulate it. Lasting 16 seconds, it shows Optimus catching a ball on the fly before dropping it and then catching another.
This video was originally posted by the Tesla Optimus X account (ex-Twitter). Publication that is accompanied by a simple phrase: “I have a new hand for Black Friday.”
An impressive robot, but not truly autonomous
In the video we see that the hand with which Optimus catches the tennis ball is different from the other. Gray in color, it seems more “human” than the other.
“Our new hand/forearm with double the degrees of freedom is now in action in the robot. There are 22 degrees of freedom in the hand and 3 in the wrist/forearm,” said Milan Kovac, Tesla’s head of engineering.
This new hand has a “protective layer on the fingers and palm,” he said. In his message, Milan Kovac also reveals that Optimus was controlled remotely in the video. In other words, it’s not really autonomous.
The publication of this video comes a few weeks after the last Tesla event, during which the Optimus robots caused a sensation. Chatting, taking selfies and serving drinks impressed many, some even thought they were self-sufficient. In reality, they were assisted by humans.
That hasn’t stopped Elon Musk from touting the capabilities of Optimus, saying it will be the most in-demand product of all time. “They can do whatever you want, take care of the kids or be your friends,” he said.
Source: BFM TV
