After their announcement in July, 1X Technology finally unveils Neo, their latest humanoid robot that you can use at home. Safety being at the core of its design, Neo is intended to assist with everyday tasks while wearing a sporty jumpsuit.
For a world designed by and for humans, it is plausible that a machine built in the human form factor would be useful for certain tasks for humans. And so humanoid robots have been on the hype a lot this year, with many companies releasing their own versions. With AI integrated with these humanoids, they can be remarkable in their performance.
1X Technology has been developing robots for a while now, and their latest humanoid, Neo, is the kind you can use at home. Neo is designed to perform simple tasks like folding laundry, moving things around, and assisting you with basic household chores.
The 5.5-foot tall robot that weighs 66 pounds (30 kg) can lift double its weight and run at speeds up to 7.5 mph, but a more important detail is how safety is at the forefront of its design. And its batteries can allow it to run for two to four hours.
Not only is Neo lightweight, but its build is made to be soft and compliant, making it safe for people to interact with in their homes, and this is also thanks to their own tendon drive technology that mimics human muscles.
The AI technology Neo runs on allows it to not only perform tasks for people at home but also learn from its environment and improve its performance with time based on new information or changes in its surroundings. Users will also be able to interact with it using natural language.
In the short demo, we see it hand a backpack to a person and even give them a hug. It'll mostly be wearing a sporty jumpsuit to keep it friendly and keep its design structure within.
Something interesting, though, the company notes that a remote human operator can control the vision and movements of the humanoid if it is needed. Although a little uncanny to have someone else operate your own humanoid in your home, it does present some usefulness, especially in teaching it how to do specific tasks particular to your home.
“Safety is the cornerstone that allows us to confidently introduce Neo Beta into homes, where it will gather essential feedback and demonstrate its capabilities in real-world settings,” Bernt Bornich, CEO of 1X, said. “This year, we are deploying a limited number of Neo units in selected homes for research and development purposes. Doing so means we are taking another step toward achieving our mission.”
We're at the dawn of an era where having a humanoid in your home would be as normal as a refrigerator. If they can work well now and be reasonably useful, there's no telling how much better they'll all be in the future with more sophisticated and advanced technologies.
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Image credits: 1X