- Unitree shows off some revealing new G1 mobility options
- He mastered big wheels and skates.
- With a surprise ice skating reveal at the end.
It is widely accepted that the era of mobile robots is just around the corner. We’ve seen them walk, run, run marathons, and jump over a chasm of platforms. Now, however, robot makers like Unitree are starting to mix things up and replace feet with wheels.
Early balance robots often moved on wheels (the original Segway was essentially a balance robot), but humanoid robots like the Unitree G1 usually have, for better or worse, arms, legs, and feet that look like ours.
The effort to program and train robots to use these limbs naturally has been considerable, helped in recent years by the arrival of generative AI. Now, scalable training can be done on a computer, with most failures saved for simulation. By the time these companies pour algorithms into robots, the robots walk as well or better than us.
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This means that walking and running humanoids are now basically solved and as we have seen, there are robots that can run faster than us. However, some might argue that wheels are more efficient. Watching the Unitree G1 glide on its wheels (not CGI or sped up, Unitree reminds us), one might be inclined to agree. It moves fast and doesn’t even slow down when spinning on a single wheel. As is often the case, these trained robots now master movements far beyond the reach of average humans.
Unitree hasn’t offered much, if any, background on this latest G1 mobility performance, and in the video, the robot quickly transitioned from two large wheels to skates. It’s in this video clip that the G1 seems a little less stable… who am I kidding? I’d still catch you in a bind.
The truly opening part of the video occurs towards the end, when Unitree outfitted the G1 with a pair of ice skates.
Ice skating is a level above mobility on wheels. After all, you not only have to take into account how to slide forward on the ice, but also take into account the slipperiness of the surface and how to counteract it and not fall face first on the mechanical butt.
Once again, we have to give digital training credit for making the G1 look like it’s preparing, if not for figure skating, then at least for some Olympic-level ice hockey.
It’s an exciting one minute and fifteen seconds long video, but it also begs the question: why? What is Unitree training its approximately $16,000 robot to do? How will potential consumers use these capabilities? This means, as the title of the video implies, that some people want wheels and can buy them as accessories.
I really think that a pair of legs with wheels could be faster, more effective and safer at home, where they will help you better navigate obstacles and rush to your aid if you are about to fall. Of course, the roughly 77-pound, 4-foot-tall robot probably isn’t equipped to break the fall of an average-sized person. In fact, we have ample evidence of the G1’s propensity to make mistakes.
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