The humanoid Optimus robot, also known as Tesla Bot, did not attract much attention and did not receive positive reactions when it was first introduced. Because compared to its competitors, it seemed like it was at the very beginning of the road. Now, Tesla has completely overhauled its humanoid robot with Gen 2, following a series of other revamps. Now Optimus is faster (30%), lighter, smoother and more capable.It’s been a little over two years since Tesla and Elon Musk entered the humanoid robot industry. When we saw the first prototype last year, the robot looked very “bland”, but in March of this year, the company exhibited a much more advanced version. After a short period of ten months, a brand new Optimus Gen 2 has appeared.
Optimus Gen 2 has a two-axis neck, integrated electronics and wiring, and a more human-like shape with articulating foot sections and force/torque sensors. It also features brand new hands with 11 degrees of freedom of movement, faster actuators, and touch sensors on all fingers to enable more dexterous handling of objects. It looks much more aerodynamic and humanoid, moves much smoother, is better balanced. Despite all this, the robot itself is now 10 percent lighter.
Although Optimus Gen 2 seems like a big step forward, we can say that it is still far behind Boston Dynamics and its extraordinary Atlas robot. However, Tesla’s development speed is much faster. On the other hand, no matter how striking the hardware exhibited by Tesla and other similar companies may seem, the hardware side is probably the least important of the obstacles. All humanoid robot manufacturers need to do is prove that their robots do real work in the real world, in a repeatable, reliable and flexible way.
However, Tesla is one of the companies closest to this main goal. The company said it plans to begin using the robot in its own manufacturing operations soon. Once it proves its usefulness, Tesla plans to start selling the robot. Tesla believes this could be possible by leveraging its artificial intelligence work in its driverless vehicle program and its expertise in batteries and electric motors.
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