Why humanoid robots are learning everyday tasks faster than expected | Scientific American

I’m a huge fan of centaur robots—mobile wheel base with arms and a head. For safety, that’s such an easier way to get there quickly. If a humanoid loses power, it’s going to fall down. The general plan seems like it’s to make a robot so incredibly valuable that we as a society create a new safety class for it—like bicycles and cars.

I’m a huge fan of centaur robots—mobile wheel base with arms and a head. For safety, that’s such an easier way to get there quickly. If a humanoid loses power, it’s going to fall down. The general plan seems like it’s to make a robot so incredibly valuable that we as a society create a new safety class for it—like bicycles and cars.

Dressed as a robot, Benjie Holson demonstrates the silver medal challenge in his proposed Humanoid Olympics.

Last September roboticist Benjie Holson posted the “Humanoid Olympic Games”: a set of increasingly difficult tests for humanoid robots that he demonstrated himself while dressed in a silver bodysuit.

Holson’s point was that the hard tasks aren’t the dazzling ones. While other competitions feature robots playing sports and dancing, Holson argued that the robots we actually want are the ones that can do laundry and cook meals.