After the debut of the end-to-end solution for the Tesla humanoid robot Optimus ("Optimus Prime"), it seems that there have been few major news reports, but this does not mean that research and development have stagnated.
According to Electrek, a basement in Tesla is currently filled with humanoid robot samples, and the company is trying to teach these robots to complete tasks through neural networks.
At the same time, Tesla has also increased its recruitment efforts in the humanoid robot business, and has recently added multiple related new job vacancies.
It is worth noting that in the past, Tesla's recruitment needs mainly focused on robot technology itself and bipedal robot manufacturing. However, in the new recruitment needs, it seems that more emphasis is on "how to make robots more useful", that is, practicality.
For example, in the position of 'Enhanced Learning Engineer, Tesla Bot', Tesla explains as follows:
Tesla is manufacturing humanoid robots on a large scale to automate repetitive and tedious tasks. The goal of our reinforcement learning team is to establish a universal robot learning system that can utilize AI to perform complex physical tasks, including full body movements, precise manipulation, and more. This position will be responsible for end-to-end robot learning, covering the entire process from inception to deployment. The final work results will be applied to thousands of humanoid robots.
The job responsibilities of the "Software Engineer, Robot Software Engineering" position include:
The robot software engineering team is responsible for designing, manufacturing, and integrating various types of mobile robots and vehicles to facilitate the movement of personnel and components within and between all Tesla factories worldwide, which may include managing AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robots), vertical storage systems, conveyor belt systems, and using Tesla Bots in factory workshops.
Tesla has not yet announced the specific launch date of the humanoid robot Optimus, but the company has stated that it has become a priority for the company and plans to put Optimus into actual operation in order to prove its availability before actual commercial release.
According to Musk's sharing at this year's Q2 performance briefing, Optimus is expected to conduct walking tests in November of this year. The October report of Huachuang Securities pointed out that this means that Tesla needs to prepare various lower limb joint actuator plans in a short period of time and continuously test and revise them. Based on Tesla's recruitment requirements for production supervisors (cross functional team collaboration, defining and tracking scope, development milestones and timelines, validation and deployment plans, ensuring smooth execution of multiple development stages), the overall progress of their humanoid robots meets expectations, and the Optimus moment is approaching.
Looking at the entire robot industry chain, various manufacturers have recently accelerated their pace - Xiaopeng has just released its self-developed humanoid robot PX5; The Fourier intelligent universal humanoid robot GR-1 began pre-sale to the public at the end of September; Amazon has started testing the bipedal robot Digit. Zhejiang Securities is optimistic about the industrialization trend of humanoid robots, and suggests focusing on the manufacturing leader of core components of humanoid robots, and implementing them on specific targets:
Motor: Recommend Mingzhi Electric Appliances, pay attention to Huichuan Technology, Jiangsu Leili, Buke Co., Ltd., Weichuang Electric, etc;
Screw: Recommend Hengli Hydraulic, Changsheng Bearing, Wuzhou New Year, pay attention to Best, Dingzhi Technology, Nifa Precision Machine, Qinchuan Machine Tool, etc;
Reducer: Recommend double ring transmission and green harmonic, pay attention to Zhongli Dede, Shanghai Electromechanical, Hanyu Group, Fengli Intelligent, Han's Laser, Haozhi Electromechanical, etc;
Sensors: Recommend Huayi Technology, pay attention to Keli Sensing, Hanwei Technology, Xindong Lianke, etc;
Controller: Huazhong CNC and Bozhong Precision are recommended, and attention should be paid to Xinshida, Everett, INVETON, etc;
Lightweight: Recommend precision technology, pay attention to Zhongfu Shenying, Jilin Chemical Fiber, Jilin Carbon Valley, etc;
Integration: Pay attention to Sanhua Intelligent Control, Tuopu Group, etc;
Robot complete machine: Recommend Eston, pay attention to Boshi Group, Xinsong Robotics, etc;
Special robots: We recommend crystal products for special installations.