I really feel like people need to stop trying to make these sorts of robots look so "human-like". The effect of a mouthless bald doll head strapped on top of an iron man robot isn't exactly comforting, to me anyway. It starts to hit the uncanny valley a bit
Maybe the wanted to create an https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Boy
I feel like the funny part is that there are so many "robot" mask designs in pop culture that would look 1000x more comforting than a slightly psychotic looking robotic doll
That's exactly my idea. I would feel far more comforted being rescued by something like Chappie or The Iron Legion than something like the Sophia robot or this thing. Human-inspired over human imitation
This looks like it was put together by Sid in his room.
A similar type of robot is key to the plot of the superbly quirky film 'Brian and Charles' [0] in which a nutty inventor build a robot that looks exactly a weird old-man's head stuck on top of a washing-machine shaped body.
Under rated British comedy gold right there, layers and layers especially the illuminati references
Presumably they want to eventually put a human inside it, in which case having a humanoid robot to work off of wouldn't change the aero calculations and designs too much. The article talks about specific design considerations to avoid the exhaust gases.
Gravity Industries already has that sorted https://gravity.co/ . I was almost expecting this robot to just be a humanoid robot with one of those suits on
Looking at the 'hands' of this robot, it looks to be exactly that.
> Presumably they want to eventually put a human inside it [..]
I'm imagining a team just putting the organs of a human into the robot to save on space. Basically a brain plus whatever is absolutely necessary to run the brain.
Wasn't that Robocop 3?
I would look at that and think "doll". Others look at it and think "human". People are weird.
Reminds me so much of Mega Man on NES.
> “is that the exhaust gas from the turbines is at 800 °C and almost supersonic speed.
MY SHOES ARE ON FIRE!
They kinda handwaved the whole "wash the disaster area in superheated jet exhaust before doing your S&R" problem.
Why would you need bipedism for a flying object ? Wouldn't a quadripod + quadcopter setup would be much more stable and cheaper ?
Cause then the horrifying baby face would really look out of place.
It's being advertised as being used for generic disaster recovery, where it's beneficial to be human-shaped (human infrastructure is designed for humans, so its easier to interface with it if the robot is human-shaped too), so they just strapped some jets on it to take it to the disaster zone itself
>It's being advertised as being used for generic disaster recovery, where it's beneficial to be human-shaped (human infrastructure is designed for humans, so its easier to interface with it if the robot is human-shaped too)
Ummmm, disaster recovery is hard precisely because the infrastructure (e.g. a collapsed building) ceased to be suitable for humans.
That's just something robot manufacturers say to justify building their expensive toys, I promise you it'll never be used for that purpose.
See the XKCD someone has already posted below.
Yeah I know, but that's what they're advertising it as
That's not the point of this robot.
I suppose the original iCub research robot is running out of grants it can milk, so they strapped some jet engines to it.
Can we please be honest with ourselves for a second and call out the ridiculousness of the "find a lost hiker" and "disaster relief" excuses used by kill-bot companies?
Who is this robot going to save with glowing hot turbine engines on it's fore-arms.
This is kill-bot tech put on the iCub to get articles in circulation.
If you truly wanted to do this, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has already proven that you can drop bombs via drones with pinpoint accuracy for dirt cheap.
If somebody's going to work on something a million times more the cost and a similar fractional multiple of the effectiveness, maybe you can take them at face value that they're not building a murderbot (at least not by design).
https://gravity.co/ is a similar project that seems to be much more advanced, and also attaches to a real human body, rather than a nightmare doll head
It's also incredibly difficult to learn to use and to operate. The whole point of putting a robot in the cockpit is that it won't make mistakes humans will and thus be more fuel efficient (e.g., longer operation times).
At least if you can keep the weight down.
Man, the carnage that will inevitably happen when someone pushes this thing too far. I suppose that’s true of many things (motorcycles), but this just terrifies me.
"disaster response" is code for "we built the robot before realizing we need to justify it to others" https://xkcd.com/2128
Came here to say this. It appears 14 words into the article! I laughed out loud and immediately stopped reading. Write an article when their robot has "saved" at least one living thing and I'll pay attention. Until then it's just vapor. In the meantime I'll wear my downvotes with pride.
Next step: add an RTG power source and make it look like a boy.
Flying is usually the easiest part of "flying like Iron Man"
"uh.... search and rescue."
a humanoid robot designed to fly like a billionaire arms dealer