There’s functionally no engineering reason to put a robot on two legs.
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There’s functionally no engineering reason to put a robot on two legs. Every other form factor is cheaper, more stable, more efficient, and easier to maintain.
There is, however, a very good marketing reason: everyone’s watched Terminator, fear goes viral, and anxiety drives attention.
A warehouse robot is infrastructure.
A humanoid robot is an engagement strategy…
@Daojoan There is one reason. Robots will often have to work in a space designed by humans for humans, so they will need to mimic humans. Big companies have the money to create infrastructure that fits robots better. China has entire factories run by robots, where they work 24/7 with lights off. Amazon has warehouses that are completely flat, and riddled with guidelines and tracks on the floor. Not every company will have such infrastructure, so they'll need robots that can climb stairs instead.
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There’s functionally no engineering reason to put a robot on two legs. Every other form factor is cheaper, more stable, more efficient, and easier to maintain.
There is, however, a very good marketing reason: everyone’s watched Terminator, fear goes viral, and anxiety drives attention.
A warehouse robot is infrastructure.
A humanoid robot is an engagement strategy…
@Daojoan a lot of the engineers take ideas from fiction as well : )
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Aaakshully
Two legs makes sense.
1. Minimum suspension mats (vs tripod or quad+)
2. Nature doesn't do wheels.
3. There are other ground propulsion methods (wigglies etc) but not fast.
4. Once you got the balance software going, legs are super fast.
5. You could have alternatives, but they are medium specific (arboreal, hydrous), legs are universal.
6. Flight has specific downsides mass/energy also medium specific
Just about the only half decent alternative is snake.
But legs > snake@n_dimension @Daojoan there must be a good reason for most mammals to be four legged
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@n_dimension @Daojoan there must be a good reason for most mammals to be four legged
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There’s functionally no engineering reason to put a robot on two legs. Every other form factor is cheaper, more stable, more efficient, and easier to maintain.
There is, however, a very good marketing reason: everyone’s watched Terminator, fear goes viral, and anxiety drives attention.
A warehouse robot is infrastructure.
A humanoid robot is an engagement strategy…
Benk Holiday Weekend (@TheBreadmonkey@beige.party)
Attached: 1 video New Michael Jackson movie looks lit
beige.party (beige.party)
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There’s functionally no engineering reason to put a robot on two legs. Every other form factor is cheaper, more stable, more efficient, and easier to maintain.
There is, however, a very good marketing reason: everyone’s watched Terminator, fear goes viral, and anxiety drives attention.
A warehouse robot is infrastructure.
A humanoid robot is an engagement strategy…
I always cringe at illustrations of “office AI assistants”. Humanoid robots who look at a big monitor and does input using a keyboard and mouse. JUST USE THE USB-C CONNECTOR ALREADY!!!
Of course, they are almost always white and the female bots have nice boobs. So infantilising.
Sarah Connor’s biggest mistake was failing to develop military grade glue guns. The first robot uprising would have been too sticky to do much damage

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Benk Holiday Weekend (@TheBreadmonkey@beige.party)
Attached: 1 video New Michael Jackson movie looks lit
beige.party (beige.party)
@justcameheretosay after the marathon
@Daojoan -
@Daojoan There is one reason. Robots will often have to work in a space designed by humans for humans, so they will need to mimic humans. Big companies have the money to create infrastructure that fits robots better. China has entire factories run by robots, where they work 24/7 with lights off. Amazon has warehouses that are completely flat, and riddled with guidelines and tracks on the floor. Not every company will have such infrastructure, so they'll need robots that can climb stairs instead.
There is another reason that should be obvious but isn’t, because for some reason we are never taught this when we are kids.
Of all large creatures, the human has the tightest turn radius.
(All they did was teach us how we were physically inferior blah blah blah. Meanwhile we had easily the tightest turn radius of all creatures. Even a chimp cannot turn as tightly. It is something very worth replicating in machinery.
A dog has to walk in a circle.)
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@Su_G I learnt it from one or more of Moshe Feldenkrais’s books. It is obvious once pointed out, though.
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@Su_G I learnt it from one or more of Moshe Feldenkrais’s books. It is obvious once pointed out, though.
@Su_G Of course, he may have learnt it from whoever taught him Judo.
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There is another reason that should be obvious but isn’t, because for some reason we are never taught this when we are kids.
Of all large creatures, the human has the tightest turn radius.
(All they did was teach us how we were physically inferior blah blah blah. Meanwhile we had easily the tightest turn radius of all creatures. Even a chimp cannot turn as tightly. It is something very worth replicating in machinery.
A dog has to walk in a circle.)
@chemoelectric @bit @Daojoan Hence the expression "tilting at windmills".
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@Daojoan The argument is that they should be able to get around in a world designed for humans with two legs, and the argument is plausible.
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@Su_G It is fascinating to watch how four-legged animals turn, once you know they are walking in a circle!
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@chemoelectric @bit @Daojoan Hence the expression "tilting at windmills".
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@Daojoan There is one reason. Robots will often have to work in a space designed by humans for humans, so they will need to mimic humans. Big companies have the money to create infrastructure that fits robots better. China has entire factories run by robots, where they work 24/7 with lights off. Amazon has warehouses that are completely flat, and riddled with guidelines and tracks on the floor. Not every company will have such infrastructure, so they'll need robots that can climb stairs instead.
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There’s functionally no engineering reason to put a robot on two legs. Every other form factor is cheaper, more stable, more efficient, and easier to maintain.
There is, however, a very good marketing reason: everyone’s watched Terminator, fear goes viral, and anxiety drives attention.
A warehouse robot is infrastructure.
A humanoid robot is an engagement strategy…
@Daojoan Humans are the only mammal that walks upright on two legs. Humans are not natural to this planet. Discuss.
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@n_dimension @Daojoan I'd say crabs instead of snakes. The crabbification must have some good reasons.
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@Daojoan Humans are the only mammal that walks upright on two legs. Humans are not natural to this planet. Discuss.
Mammals account for 0.06% of species on this planet. Being the only biped among such a trivially small group is hardly noteworthy.
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@Daojoan There is one reason. Robots will often have to work in a space designed by humans for humans, so they will need to mimic humans. Big companies have the money to create infrastructure that fits robots better. China has entire factories run by robots, where they work 24/7 with lights off. Amazon has warehouses that are completely flat, and riddled with guidelines and tracks on the floor. Not every company will have such infrastructure, so they'll need robots that can climb stairs instead.
