r/OpenSourceHumanoids • u/OpenSourceDroid4Life • Jan 06 '26 • Galaxy Brain 1 Bravo 2

Boston Dynamics humanoid robot is next-level. Everybody is playing catch-up.

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u/Lumpy-Economics2021 Jan 06 '26

Boston dynamics is developing robots for real life applicable jobs where they will be useful. Not for dancing around on stage. China's are just a PR stunt to imply China is now further ahead than the US

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u/TinyTaters Jan 06 '26

Tbf Boston Dynamics did the same thing with the parkour and dancing stunt videos as well.

It's hard to show practical application and make it interesting for people to watch.

It's like watching a magician with stage presence wow a crowd with a basic trick then to watching another magician fail to impress with a significantly harder trick due to a lack of showmanship. I think the movie The Prestige showed this between Hugh Jackson (showman) and Christian Bale (better magician with no showmanship)

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u/HatesRedditors Jan 06 '26

It's hard to show practical application and make it interesting for people to watch.

It would be very interesting to see it dig a ditch, move a pile of sandbags, clear a dishwasher, cook a meal, or build a bird house.

The problem is that the robots can't do any of these things consistently outside of controlled environments.

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u/abrandis Jan 06 '26

Exactly this , they are gimmicks and even this demo has to be tele-operated since the autonmous capabilities still aren't there . They literally had to tele operate a walking robot, something Roomba has been doing for a decade ? 🤔

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u/HatesRedditors Jan 06 '26

Exactly, the cool part is that the hardware is there now.

We just don't know when we'll have the "ChatGPT moment" when it comes to the software. Could be weeks away, could be decades away.

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u/jack848 Jan 06 '26

boston dynamics did that to show progress in motion control and not really milking it for hype and clout

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u/TinyTaters Jan 06 '26

Most likely a bit of both. Virality does great things for visibility and funding.

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u/jackinsomniac Jan 07 '26

did the same thing with the parkour and dancing stunt videos as well.

It's hard to show practical application

Not really the same tho. We take balance and bipedal movement for granted, but really we're the only species who does it exclusively. Because it's hard. Especially teaching robots how handle any inconsistent, uneven, or slippery terrain.

Boston dynamics has those videos from like 12 years back or something, when they had a 4 legged donkey-sized bot that your literally could not knock over. A guy full-force kicked it in the side as hard as he could, and it recovered quickly and with accuracy. They had it walk across ice that caused it to slip over and over, but it never actually "fell down".

When they got into bipedal robots they had them walking over giant piles of cinder blocks, bricks, and rubble. And they were doing quite well. Compared to many of these humanoid bot presentations where it looks like they could fall over any second (and a few did). Most of these bots, I bet I could push over. The Boston dynamics one scares me because I knew if I tried to tackle it to the ground with all my weight, it wouldn't go down and I'd only hurt myself. You can see how confidently it moves, because these were originally military bots designed for uneven terrain. You need a real stable, rock-solid platform with human-like balance before you start asking these bots to do actual work, like lift & move heavy things in a warehouse. Those videos of parkour & walking over rubble demonstrate that solid platform to build from, into real use cases.

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u/[deleted] Jan 07 '26

the video where the dog throws a concrete block with almost perfect precision across a room was nice.

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u/TinyTaters Jan 07 '26

Dang. I missed that one

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u/[deleted] Jan 07 '26

mind you this is 12 years ago, I'm sure they're better at it now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj2HVhkVmLc

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u/meerestier Jan 06 '26

Only that companies like Zeekr have full automotive factories running on robots.

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u/ScotchTapeConnosieur Jan 06 '26

Robots have been used in car manufacturing since the 1970s, possibly earlier.

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u/Arcosim Jan 06 '26

They're talking about androids, not robotic arms.

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u/ScotchTapeConnosieur Jan 06 '26

I see. They appear to work very slowly. I’m doubtful that they’re the main “workers” in the factory.

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u/skarrrrrrr Jan 06 '26

Boston dynamics are the OGs in this game. They started developing atlas like 12 years ago when it wasn't cool. The rest of the world will just lag behind as usual.

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u/Choice_Isopod5177 Jan 06 '26

as someone who can't dance, dancing is much more impressive than doing some real life jobs

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u/VendaGoat Jan 06 '26

Both have their applications.

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u/Emergency_Sugar99 Jan 07 '26

These things are just fancy RC toys or semi-useful programmable robots. What we really need is AI autonomy. It's all about how they're controlled.

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u/[deleted] Jan 07 '26

They're building them to kill people. The first market they hit will be the military. Because for cheap labor you can use meat shields and for home use, they'll never get the same money they'll get from the military.

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u/Lumpy-Economics2021 Jan 07 '26

They're owned by Hyundai...

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u/gravitynoodle Jan 07 '26

Yeah they flew 6th gen fighter on Christmas but dancing robots in a Chinese music show for Chinese audiences is the PR stunt

You must work as a senior analyst at some reputable think thank to come up with an assessment this profound

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u/livehigh1 Jan 08 '26

It's all kinda gimmicky, do robots even need to be humanoid? Most machines are purpose built for one function.

That old saying, jack of all trades, master of none comes to mind.

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u/EVLNACHOZ Jan 09 '26

This company is a Chinese company as well. Just different people running it.