Watch This Super Advanced, High-Tech Google Robot Slip On A Banana Peel
I'm not even sure why it's so funny, but watching a video of what is essentially a high-tech robot dog slip on a banana peel just makes me laugh.
Maybe, it's the fact this robot named SpotMini, which amazingly navigates a house and performs basic household chores, was invented and designed by some of the top engineers and scientists in the world, and yet can't manage to defeat a banana peel. (Boston Dynamics, the company these geniuses work for, is owned by Google, so that should tell you just what kind of brilliant minds are working on this advanced robotics project.)
Or, it could be the fact the robot doesn't just slip, it COMPLETELY eats it, like, it goes from vertical to horizontal in one hilarious instant with a loud flop.
The video description gives a little backstory about SpotMini.
It says,
SpotMini is a new smaller version of the Spot robot, weighing 55 lbs dripping wet (65 lbs if you include its arm.) SpotMini is all-electric (no hydraulics) and runs for about 90 minutes on a charge, depending on what it is doing. SpotMini is one of the quietest robots we have ever built. It has a variety of sensors, including depth cameras, a solid state gyro (IMU) and proprioception sensors in the limbs. These sensors help with navigation and mobile manipulation. SpotMini performs some tasks autonomously, but often uses a human for high-level guidance.
To the credit of the robot and its technology, SpotMini actually manages to right itself and stand up, which leads me to believe the slip was entirely intentional to showcase just how amazing this robot is. And have no doubt, this robot is amazing.
In the video, the robot walks around the house, puts a glass in a dishwasher, disposes of a soda can in the trash using it's dinosaur-like head, carries a can to a human (a can that it hilariously breaks) and so on.
It's honestly unbelievable there's a robot that can just move so seamlessly and fluidly without any problems.
Anyway, if you want to watch SpotMini do all kinds of amazing things, check out the video at the top. If you just want to watch a robot totally slip on a banana peel, skip to 1:27.
