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Unitree Robotics, well-known for offering inexpensive legged robots together with questionable Star Wars-themed promotional movies, has introduced a model new, custom-made, 6-degree-of-freedom robotic arm meant to be mounted on the again of its bigger quadrupeds. Additionally, it can save humanity from Sith from Mars, or one thing.
This, we should always level out, just isn’t the primary time Unitree has used The Drive in a promotional video, though their first try was very Darkish Aspect and the second try appeared to be largely an apology for the primary. The latest video right here appears to have landed squarely on the Gentle Aspect, which is nice, however I’m kinda confused in regards to the suggestion that the baddies come from Mars (?) and most people are killed (??) and the reply is a few kind of “Tremendous AI” (???). I assume Unitree must launch extra merchandise in order that we will learn the way this story ends.
Anyway, in regards to the arm: there are two variations, the Z1 Air and the Z1 Professional, constructed with {custom} motors utilizing harmonic reducers for low backlash and torque management. They’re virtually precisely the identical, besides that the Professional weighs 4.3kg somewhat than 4.1kg, and has a payload of 3-5kg somewhat than 2kg. Max attain is 0.7m, with 0.1mm repeatability. The worth for the Air model is “about $6600,” and it’s suitable with “different cellular robots” as effectively.
It’s vital to notice that simply having an arm on a robotic is arguably the straightforward half—it’s utilizing the arm that’s the onerous half, within the sense that you need to program it to do what you want it to do. A powerful, light-weight, and well-integrated arm actually makes that job simpler, however it stays to be seen what can be concerned in getting the arm to do helpful stuff. I don’t need to draw too many comparisons to Boston Dynamics right here, however Spot’s arm comes with autonomous and semi-autonomous behaviors built-in, permitting in any other case advanced actions to be leveraged by industrial finish customers. It’s not but clear how Unitree is dealing with this.
We’re on the level now with robots usually that in lots of instances, software program is the differentiator somewhat than {hardware}, and also you get what you pay for. That mentioned, typically what you need or want is a extra inexpensive system to work with, and do not forget that Unitree’s AlienGo prices underneath $10k. There’s actually a requirement for inexpensive {hardware}, and whereas it will not be able to be dropped into industrial functions simply but, it’s good to see choices like these available on the market.
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