Robots On Foot Are Harder Than Robots on Wheels

Reading the post and watching the video, I have a few reactions:

Ford is completely right that the last-mile (really, last-ten-yards) delivery problem is going to be a huge issue. Right now logistics companies rely on drivers to both operate a vehicle and to walk deliveries to customers’ front doors. Self-driving cars solve the first problem, but in a lot of cases that won’t ultimately have much of an impact if we can’t solve the second task.

So the motivation for Digit is spot-on.

But walking robots are bananas-level difficult.

Look no further than this video with the awesome title, “A Compilation of Robots Falling Down at the DARPA Robotics Challenge”:

Granted, this video is from 4 years ago and progress has been made, but my impression is that walking robots make self-driving cars look like an easy problem.

Digit’s demo video is awesome, but we’ve all learned to be skeptical of demo videos. If Ford, together with Agility Robotics, can really crack the nut on a walking robot that can deliver packages, then they won’t even need to solve the autonomous vehicle problem. They’ll have the whole world beating down their door.

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