XPeng’s next-generation “Iron” humanoid robot turned heads and floored jaws when it was seen walking very much like a human last week.
The Chinese company, better known for electric vehicles than humanoid robots, even had to tear off part of Iron’s padding to prove that there wasn’t a human inside it.
A new video (below) from XPeng has taken things a step further by removing Iron’s entire outer shell to give us a closer look at its metal interior and core workings.
The IRON robot, in its full bare metal glory!
XPeng’s CEO shares an inside look at the humanoid in the lab. pic.twitter.com/VyxeMUkthH
As you can see, the footage begins with Iron performing a dance, which the narrator, XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng, says is a great way to demonstrate a robot’s overall flexibility and coordination.
Xiaopeng said his team of engineers trained Iron using imitation learning combined with a large AI model, enabling their humanoid robot to replicate the movements provided via input human dance data.
“It mastered the dancing in just two hours,” Xiaopeng said, adding that using the alternative method of reinforcement learning took two weeks to get the robot to the same level of skill.
Addressing the audience response at last week’s event when people were wowed — and likely a little creeped out — by Iron’s remarkable ability to walk in a human-like way, the CEO said it used the same AI-based training approach that it used for the dancing.
The natural walking motion is partly down to the robot’s unique spine design, which is based on that of a human. Xiaopeng explained that this adds integrated flexibility to the waist to create a natural-looking hip-swaying motion.
XPeng is one of a growing number of companies keen to develop and deploy humanoid robots in the workplace and even in the home. Though the technology isn’t quite there, recent advancements in AI technologies have given the sector a boost as engineers work to perfect their designs.
The latest company to throw their hat in the ring is Samsung, which last week promised it would unveil its first humanoid robot “soon.”
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Google DeepMind's AI world model Genie 4 can now build interactive worlds that you can explore and reshape as they run. It also generates ambient sounds, music, and dialogue that respond to your actions.
The new world model builds on Genie 3 with improved realism, more natural human movement, and better simulations of real-world physics. It could eventually help with everything from game development to training robots.
Apple has an incredible talent for making me admire its products while simultaneously questioning what on earth it's thinking with the pricing. This isn't even something as bizarre as a monitor stand, but the audacity for starting a new laptop lineup from $2,000 doesn't surprise me.
The newly announced 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 is just the latest to showcase this. The funny thing is, I already know that it's going to be a reliable workstation. You get a powerful new 2nm M6 processor, a gorgeous Liquid Retina XDR display, and up to 24 hours of battery life. We were impressed by the M5 MacBook Air, so the high-end M6 powered MacBook Pro definitely won't let us down.