Tesla chief Elon Musk shares on social media platform X a video of the robot Optimus folding a t-shirt. What do we know about this humanoid robot that Tesla is developing?
The video Musk recently shared on X shows an Optimus robot folding a t-shirt. At first glance, the robot appears to do this entirely autonomously.
Video is not what it seems
As it turns out, this is not actually the case. Shortly after the video appeared, Musk posted a supplementary message below the video. In it, the top executive reports that Optimus does not yet perform this action autonomously, but will eventually be able to do so "fully autonomously" and in a "random environment".
In the video, an extra hand appears briefly on the right-hand side of the screen. Optimus’s hand appears to mimic the movements of this hand exactly. According to some X users, a person off-screen is controlling Optimus. This is a commonly used method for training robots, whereby humans demonstrate actions and robots imitate them.
What is Optimus?
Optimus is a humanoid robot whose concept version appeared at a Tesla AI event in August 2021. This concept was then called 'Tesla Bot'. Tesla showed the first prototypes of Optimus in September 2022. At the second edition of its event AI Day, two prototypes were present. One could walk independently, while the other model could move its arms.
Optimus made another appearance in September 2023. Tesla then shared a video showing new activities of Optimus, including sorting blocks and adopting yoga positions. Tesla shared another video on X on 13 December, this time of the second generation of Optimus. This version could walk, dance and boil an egg, among other things.
General purpose robot
Tesla is hereby betting on a robot for "general use". The robot should be able to take over unsafe, repetitive and boring tasks from humans. These tasks are very diverse. In a household, for instance, they could be tasks like cooking and mowing the lawn, while in an industrial environment they could be assembly or packaging objects.
The robot is part of Musk's goal to automate all human physical labour. Among other things, the robot should help take Tesla's production to the next level. Musk sees Optimus as the key to making Tesla a $10 trillion company.
Specifications
Some technical specifications of Optimus are known:
- Height: 177 cm
- Overall weight: 73 kg
- Maximum payload: 20 kg
- Maximum lifting capacity: 68 kg
- Maximum speed: 8 km per hour
- Battery: lithium battery with 2.3 kWh
- Battery life: about 8 hours
An official launch date for Optimus is not known. The price of the robot is estimated to be less than US$20,000.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Image: Tesla
