Tesla’s Optimus Robot Whips Out Zen Yoga Poses And Shows Off New Skills
Tesla has given the world a glimpse into its foray into robotics. A new video on social media features Tesla’s bipedal droid, Optimus, performing yoga poses and sorting colored blocks.
While Optimus busting out the tree pose is certainly a sight to behold, its main purpose—obviously—is not to teach yoga around the office. The clip, however, demonstrates its precision and ability to locate its limbs in spaces using its visual perception, highlighting how far the bot has come in terms of autonomous spatial awareness.
The robot also confidently assumes a yoga pose on one leg with its arms lifted in the air, suggesting an improvement in its ability to maintain equilibrium. According to Insider, experts like Jim Fan from Stanford University commend the hardware quality evident in the demonstration and anticipate that Optimus’ human-like hands will excel in daily tasks.
Optimus can now sort objects autonomously 🤖
— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) September 23, 2023
Its neural network is trained fully end-to-end: video in, controls out.
Come join to help develop Optimus (& improve its yoga routine 🧘)
→ https://t.co/dBhQqg1qya pic.twitter.com/1Lrh0dru2r
Another headway Tesla has made is Optimus’ newfound capability to self-calibrate its arms and legs. In the video, we witness the droid deftly picking up blocks, categorizing them by color, and correctly orienting them. Even when an employee tried to intervene by moving the blocks around, it was able to correct its mistakes.
Tesla first unveiled its ambition to develop humanoid robots in 2021, proposing potential applications in factories and even as human companions.
It’s worth mentioning that a previous demonstration of Optimus revealed struggles with walking independently. However, a squad of five robots was seen walking around the Tesla office a few months ago, performing simple tasks such as sorting and cracking eggs.
Despite its latest advancements to try and find its zen and sort out blocks, there is still no solid word on when Optimus will be taking its first real steps into the world. The last public appearance was in July when it was displayed in Tesla’s New York City store.
[via Interesting Engineering and Insider, cover image via Tesla/X]
