On August 30th, 1X announced a milestone with their new NEO Beta prototype, intending to bring humanoid robots into consumer households.
While I have no intention of bringing a humanoid bot into my home, it’s interesting to consider potential benefits of a companion for someone who has limited mobility.
I’ve read about how robots could adress labor shortages in industries where humans are less willing to work, but the biggest challenge in those cases are the cost of the bots and maintenance.
1X is designing NEO with large-scale manufacturing in mind, which should help reduce their overall cost.
One other interesting detail is how 1X has successfully developed gearless motors that achieve about 80% of the force density of human muscle without the use of gears. I’m curious how that affects mechanical wear and tear.
1X also designs their robots to be soft and gentle, yet strong. Inspired by humans with the intent to be safe in our environment.
NEO’s Specs
Here are the specifications on the NEO humanoid:
- 5.41 feet
- 66 pounds
- 2.5 miles/hour walk speed
- 7.5 miles/hour run speed
- 44 pound carry capacity
- 2-4 hour run time
With specs like those, it seems reasonable to consider that NEO could do some work for a while and plug themselves in to be charged as needed. I could also see me carrying them out to the car for a trip to the “bot shop” if there was an epic failure 😅
Learning From EVE
EVE is the first model from 1X, which uses wheels to get around.
NEO is built on everything they learned from putting EVE into real world applications.
Here’s a video of EVE making gingerbread cookies for the Holidays:
While EVE isn’t going to win any holiday cookie decorating competitions, that is still pretty cool!
My only hope is that these humanoids are waterproof and able to do the dishes!
Conclusion
I find it intriguing to watch as we move into a potential future where humans and humanoids work side-by-side. I already leverage an LLM-based “mind” as my assistant in the digital world, and have been exploring simulated bots in virtual environments. Would I ever be willing to move into a humanoid form in my home? Seems a bit creepy to honest. What if I truly needed the help? Would I be willing to reconsider? I guess only time will tell.
With supporters like NVIDIA and OpenAi, I’m guessing this is just the beginning.
