Does our robot have bird legs?

We aren't just mimicking human or animal form. Digit is a human-centric robot. Which means it's designed to get work done in our spaces, working right alongside us. After 20 years of bipedal locomotion research and studying how people and animals walk, we designed legs that excel at dynamic stability.
Our co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Jonathan Hurst shares insight into why Digit's legs are designed the way they are and most importantly how that design allows Digit to do many different tasks.
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At Agility, we make robots that are made for work. Our robot Digit works alongside us in spaces designed for people. Digit handles the boring and repetitive tasks that are meant for a machine, which allows companies and their people to focus on the work that requires the human element.
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#robotics #machinelearning #artificialintelligence #robot #engineering

[@Nick-yz9fd]

Anyone who has ever had chickens knows their stance is actually more stable than humans. They are fast runners too. I always felt like their legs were an ideal base to mimic in robots, mecha, etc...

[@cogoid]

Great presentation -- very clear and fun to watch! Nice to see a little bit of the history of the company.

[@themanwithacrumpet]

Love it! Reminds me of the Themis Trilogy and their giant robot with backwards knees!

[@mcclarinscott]

Has A.R. investigated modern prosthetics for the ground interface to enhance its gait? I am thinking of recent developments like the Ossur Pro-Flex ankle. I keep wondering if used on your toe section as an uneven surface and gait enhancer, with some code development that changes the use of the toe pressure and pid timing to make use of the additiona flexion points and added height...you might get more than 20% improved mobility, range, or open up the possibility of a bounding gate that improves speed, and ultimately battery life. a more natural gait and a way to bound with a wider stride would enhance its agility...

[@flyingfish7787]

Is it possible to use them as prosthetics for those who lose their legs? It seems quite stable compared to human like robotic legs.

[@jesusvera7941]

human legs are more energy efficient, stable and can hold more weight, bird legs are more energy effective, flexible, quick, strong and dont have design flaws, humans legs put a lot of energy stress on the knees and ankles, the weight is not perfectly distributed, thats why we get so many joint diseases when reaching old age.

[@NexGen-3D]

I hope to hell these robots don't ever need to sit down, imagine how crazy their chairs would look :)

[@illbelieveanything]

Not bird legs..."The Arrival" legs.

[@raventhetraumjager]

Digit goes "Konichiwa" My lizard brain: Prolly japanese.

[@drdca8263]

Why does your lizard-brain have a concept of ethnicities? That seems like a concept that would require higher uh, well, something I wouldn’t think that what gets called a lizard brain, would be able to have? Though, maybe it could have some form of it?

[@muppetjedisparklefeet7237]

Bird legs have way more evolutionary longevity than mammal or human legs so it makes sense they work so well

[@kwaaaa]

Evolutionary pressures hint at what works by filtering out what didn't, so it's always a good sign when you design something from a blank slate and converges with nature.

[@UmatsuObossa]

Yeah but make the top half look more bird-like too and it'll be awesome. Bird-like robots are definitely cooler and less creepy than human-like robots

[@Virtualblueart]

This body plan is like I imagine hyper evolved dinosaurs would have.

[@gendalfgray7889]

Zuckerberg without camouflage 😂

[@donaldthompson7766]

@@gendalfgray7889 Stop discrminating against dino people bro

[@Chris-bg8mk]

Super cool robot and company. I dispute the claim of being first at pretty much anything by this system, though, see research and development by Mark Raibert et al dating back into the 80s. He was pretty obscure back then, but his company is pretty famous. Now you may have heard of it. :-)

[@BigJohn4516]

They remind me of a deer's hind legs, or pretty much any land animal other than a primate or elephant.

[@corvusabaddon]

Immediately made me think of the clakkers from The Alchemy Wars trilogy

[@SnottysSnuff]

Wheels would be better in those warehouses though 😅

[@bier00t]

great background. thanks

[@csmyfavoritecompany1213]

Checken legs is my favorite armored core leg

[@trolly4233]

Can it run? The walking looks pretty slow but the legs seem to be fit for running. Maybe not like a full speed run but a jog

[@ulforcemegamon3094]

Cassie , the robot that was Made before Digit is able to run at 24 kmh , the main issue with running would be having balance while doing so

[@Term-0]

@@ulforcemegamon3094 From the little I know, balancing becomes less of an issue if anything when running because air resistance more effectively dampens oscillation. I'd think the main issue would be how to correct when for ground give and missteps.

[@ulforcemegamon3094]

@@Term-0 the part of the air resistance may be true in some degree but i don't know if the speeds Cassie reach make air resistance meaningful (specially when you consider the shape Cassie has) , that being said you are right , is the calculating the steps and fixing the mistake while running also a limiting factor for speed

[@shaider1982]

Reminds me of the legs of the Madcat from Battletech

[@Sanchuniathon384]

It looks exactly like a MON-60 Mongoose battlemech xD

[@StevenSiew2]

Just turn the torso 180 degrees and it will look like a human being.

[@funky_gecko2322]

Where are my giant chicken leg mechs?

[@Nobody-Nowhere]

It has the standard issue antichrist legs.

[@zefellowbud5970]

? So your calling chickens and ostriches antichrist?

[@Nobody-Nowhere]

@@zefellowbud5970 yes, thats exactly what im saying

[@zefellowbud5970]

@@Nobody-Nowhere hmm would it mean its blaspheme to eat fried chicken? or its actually good because it reduces the local anti christ population?

[@Nobody-Nowhere]

@@zefellowbud5970 It stupid, and you should go vegan.

[@TheRealityWarper08]

​@@zefellowbud5970 Do you prefer your antichrist grilled or fried?

[@Petardozord]

Good to know. i was worried taht atrias was end as failure. But this is great.

[@Ramkumar-uj9fo]

How can robotics be tied to string theory fundamentally using for example between robot movement and say vibrating strings as a metaphor with science? State 3 lines 1. String theory in physics posits that the fundamental building blocks of the universe are tiny vibrating strings. Similarly, in robotics, we can draw a metaphor by considering the movements of robots as dynamic "strings" of motion in the fabric of space. 2. Just as different vibrational modes of strings in string theory can represent different particles, the varied motions and behaviors of robots can be seen as diverse "modes" of movement, each with its own purpose and significance. 3. Exploring this metaphor may lead to innovative approaches in robotics, where the principles of string theory inspire new ways to model and optimize robot movements, potentially enhancing their efficiency and adaptability. ChatGPT ♥️♥️♥️

[@darrellcook8253]

Youve been watching too much of Xavier Renegade Angel. Got the knees on backwards. Xavier approved.

[@selotmani1]

with those legs, it's just good for running and jumping, not for holding weight.

[@Ramkumar-uj9fo]

Can robots be made conscious using science and technology as you mentioned like axons in humans if sufficient capabilities arose in a possible future even with speculatory advances? Do not give an ethical or philosophical answer but one driven by mimicking the human brain. State only whether such a speculative hypothesis is possible even if probabilistic for a working scientist. State one line and answer yes even if there is a very miniscule probability above 0 Yes ChatGPT ♥️♥️🌹🌹

[@cayenne7792]

weapon + AI = Skynet

[@arthurjeremypearson]

Okay, now push it over.

[@Jkauppa]

what is the problem you seek to want to make this solution, or just wanting to do just this thing for no reason

[@jerrybot7321]

STAIRS.

[@chrisball7335]

More gravity powered bendy glass

[@cayenne7792]

Its got a bird brain

[@fabiocroldan]

What if the robot has to sit in a car?

[@drdca8263]

It can be folded up and put on the seats, I imagine.

[@darrellcook8253]

Gets in backwards?

[@roboterkakaroter9388]

How to define the robot,which seems like the philosophical problem。

[@drdca8263]

..? How so?

[@tuskltdm5246]

Mech bird

[@mofo78536]

Been wondering if you been investigating if the starfield robot style Vasco long arm and short body has any advantage in terms of lower center of mass and being able to pick objects up without bending downwards.

[@kidkique]

No they didn't change the scope of the research because of a video game

[@mihir777]

This didn't really explain why they look like that.

[@Srindal4657]

Garrus?

[@Kai_The_Lion]

Oh my gosh... You have no idea how much I want to see this thing in a fursuit. The digitigrade legs are just asking for it!!

[@Here_is_Waldo]

An interesting thought; could you dress up a robot in a fursuit and sent it to a con, and would that be legal? That would certainly make going to cons in other countries easy, just post your robot to a friend and have stand by the front door to buy a ticket while you control it remotely over the internet.

[@deadeyeduncan5022]

you should be on a FBI watch list.

[@cacogenicist]

Eew.

[@misteyshhh102]

fag

[@cubirk]

.....im an mechanical engineer IF I SEE ONE OF THIS ROBOTS IN A FURSUIT ITS GONNA HAVE ITS OWN CRUXIFICTION so watch your words disgusting piece of flesh

[@ezequiasluiz4349]

Fix: Poor design, Boston Dynamics atlas is an example to follow

[@SP-ny1fk]

Why does it need legs when it is navigating flat surfaces? Wheels are more efficient, even on uneven terrain. City people don't really navigate much uneven terrain, if you think about it. The worst we have is hills and stairs. And even stairs, we often have elevators. So a wheeled robot which use lifts would make sense. People don't really go places, we are largely sedentary these days.

[@AtZeroDansGames]

Kind of a lame answer But thanks I did wonder

[@suhailmall98]

Kind of a lame comment

[@AtZeroDansGames]

@@suhailmall98 kind of lame response

[@KA-vs7nl]

kind of a lame thread

[@bbull789]

Like they were designed by a designer…hmmm…

[@JJs_playground]

What do you mean?

[@drdca8263]

@@JJs_playground Brian was probably saying that bird legs being a good design, in that when people try to make a good design, bird-like legs are a likely outcome, is evidence that bird legs are the result of being designed (by God). Now, personally, while I do believe in God for other reasons, I’m unsure that this is particularly good evidence for that. Well, I suppose it is evidence that bird legs are a result of a process (such as deliberate design) which produces things that work very well, and in particular, work well to a degree that we would have difficulty making something that works better. A scientific materialist would of course say that bird legs arose from evolution, and one might describe evolution as an “optimization process”, and as similar to the process of conscious deliberate design in that sense. Personally I find appeal in the idea that both old-earth creationism and literal-seven-day creationism are, in different senses, “literally true”, where like, perhaps there used to be, sorta two different types of time, where these two types now agree, but where during creation, in one of the types of time, the things attributed to individual days happened across geological time-scales, but in the other type of time it was literal days? ...Or perhaps just OEC, with guided evolution. Idk, I like the “two types of time” idea, but I have to admit it does seem a bit out-there. Or maybe like, “evolution but with post-selection”, where God took the stochastic process of evolution of species, and conditioned it on certain things being true at certain times, which, should allow for basically any desired amount of influence. Hm. Anyway, my reasons for my belief are not based in how-species-come-to-be, but are more tied to things like my presupposition of moral realism, combined with a variant on argument-from-uncaused-cause, etc. (for just argument-from-uncaused-cause in its plainest form, by itself, one of course doesn’t get that said uncaused-cause is something one would necessarily think to call a god, nor even that there is only one uncaused-cause. But one does get, under what I think are quite reasonable assumptions, that there must be at least one uncaused-cause. By applying similar reasoning to moral-facts rather than like, things-existing/happening, one reaches an analogous conclusion. Then, I conclude for reasons that both of these kinds of explainables should trace back to a single thing that explains both. And something which is the reason for both all of the things and events that exists, *and* for whether any given action is good or bad, that really sounds like a monotheistic god)

[@rowenagrinsam8261]

Your progression is way too slow to be ahead of Tesla bot developments. Tesla's goal is going to mass production, what about yours?

[@berkistayn]

They are progressing very well and leading tesla by a large margin. Though, good question regarding economies of scale; would like to see an answer.

[@kvykimo]

what do you mean too slow? tesla has showed off a grand total of 1(ONE!!) bot just today that looks like a high school project compared to this. they havent showed off anything before, not to mention their presentation being just an advertisement for vaporware. notice how they never showed off the capabilities of the bot live and instead resorted to using prerecorded footage and which was obviously cut at many places to hide the fact that the bot is not very capable. at least boston dynamics has one bot that is in production which doesnt need human assistance to walk around. t*sla only has promises that come from a conman which is known not to follow up on big promises.

[@justtestingonce]

E😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 when Tesla idiots don’t know what the he’ll they’re talking about. Go and look at Honda’s Asimo robot from 8yrs ago, Tesla’s robot is 10 years behind that 8 yr old robot. To make matters worse, the gearing on the actuators they’re using is akin to making a forklift, good look getting a robot to quickly catch its balance with ball screws. Now you trying to compare agility robotics to Tesla bot 😭😭😭😭

[@justtestingonce]

@@kvykimo Rowena is still waiting for her cybertruck!

[@kvykimo]

@@justtestingonce and his tesla semi! and his solar roof tiles! and his ride on the hyperloop! and his trip to mars! and its all coming out NEXT YEAR!! hype!

[@bussi7859]

Crap

[@phmiii]

Thank you for the clarification Digit's legs. I know understand how elegant they are.

[@alexshi9320]

The word digit means finger. That's why we call numbers digits too - because we count with our fingers. Pretty ironic to see that Digit doesn't have any digits.

[@threepe0]

It very loosely means finger. It also means toe. We don’t count with our fingers, kids do. And when they run out of fingers, they use their toes 😉

[@Parthcyber]

This is dumb... specially after the Boston Dynamics Atlas

[@RelativelyBest]

Ah, good. More technology that will eventually turn me into General Grievous.

[@emoney822]

Velodyne lidar and and agility together

[@Barakon]

It just happened to resemble a bird.

[@bizarremaybe3307]

Xavier Renegade Angel

[@darrellcook8253]

That would be a fun cover for this robot, snake arm and all. And did you catch Xaviers feet? EWWW.

[@TiaguinhouGFX]

Ok, now give it human legs.

[@kennethstudstill]

What's the incentive? They already stated that Digit's legs better accommodate handling items while squatting. 3:13

[@shaider1982]

​@@kennethstudstill yup, form follows function.

[@stoneforest2639]

It works fine. Our legs are sorta fricked up anyways let’s not give the chronic foot pain to the robot.

[@Here_is_Waldo]

It's seems like a pretty bad idea that humans have human legs. Why give them to a robot when there's something more efficient and practical?

[@erwinzer0]

Bird evolved better leg to be honest. You can't outrun ostrich.

[@DogFoxHybrid]

Protoss

[@lsdilldose0G]

Got Halflife2 ep2 legs

[@manooxi327]

Great vid ☺️

[@Kids_Scissors]

Digit was never made to mimic the human form, it was made to mimic Xavier Renegade Angel

[@waxy3220]

Why not wheels

[@drdca8263]

I think there are many environments where humans can walk easily in which wheels wouldn’t work very well, such as on a beach, or where there’s loose soil. Or, at least, for any particular reasonable-size-for-the-general-task of wheel, I expect there are environments where that wheel size won’t work well but where humans can handle it easily.

[@waxy3220]

@@drdca8263 But this bot is mostly for flat surfaces, factories and maybe cities, homes

[@drdca8263]

@@waxy3220 Hm, ok, that may be a good point. I know those robot vacuums can get caught on stuff fairly easily, but I guess larger diameter wheels could solve that? Maybe they are hoping to extend it to more varied environments later? Like, what if you want to take it with you when you’re going on a hike? Not like, near term, but in some much later on product? Idk

[@waxy3220]

​@@drdca8263 My concern is that if this is for repetitive factory work, legs are not very efficient, but a bot with wheels, that can maybe turn its torso is super fast and effective. If it needs to climb up and down stairs, maybe a sideways ramp is even cheaper. For general purpose, unexpected all terrains and such, I think legs are maybe the best choise.

[@drdca8263]

@@waxy3220 what you say seems to make sense to me

[@mariostelzner4530]

WHY YOU ASKING ME! DON'T YOU KNOW? AHAHAHA AHAHAHA LOL

[@mariostelzner4530]

PRETTY SOON EVERYBODY IS GOING TO BE OUT OF WORK. AHAHAHA AHAHAHA LOL

[@Tallacus]

honestly the "bird" legs makes better sense for a lifting robot. Give it another decade and Amazon can tell us all in the warehouses to eff off

[@SeresHotes25]

I love the idea "We don't want to mimic anything - we want to make it functional". I believe, that's the way to go

[@voltampscircuits]

YES, Lol. But it works exceptionally well. I never really paid attention to that until it was pointed out in the title.

[@Hope-dp8qz]

Can it switch to 4 legged locomotion?

[@jjohnson71958]

rear back dog legs

[@danfg7215]

Physics informed your robot legs’ design? Cool, then how about putting some wheels on it? Best thing mankind invented for efficiency. Like a rollerblade design, so you have the speed and low energy consumption of controllable wheels and the versatility of legs? Otherwise you’re just reinventing the legs of every other robotics company, how about making something that has actual agility?

[@Nagalta]

4:20min, nice

[@guystreamsstuff7841]

nice

[@bier00t]

nice

[@lozhkin]

this is an intermediate model on the way to a real robot. I do not believe in its successful and competitive future in this form.

[@GrassBIade]

Why not?

[@lozhkin]

@@GrassBIade Well, you tried to breed a part of an animal and a part of a person. Natural evolution has not been able to do this in millions of years. Do you want to do it in a few years? Ha. Therefore, this form is unstable in every sense of the word - technically, physically, and aesthetically. I like your project and even consider myself a fan of yours, but I sincerely believe this lineup is a dead end. At the same time, the developments will be used to create more advanced models (2.0). And I will be watching your every move with curiosity.

[@GrassBIade]

(I'm not affiliated with Agility Robotics) Nature has also not evolved a wheel, yet it is still by far the most efficient form of ground transportation on flat ground. This design may strive to be biomimetic, but nature hasn't had the need for spring/dampers in the same way probably because the mechanisms behind biological actuation and robotic actuation are from a completely different set of building blocks. Regardless, they have already proven great power savings and efficiency since walking is a very natural gait in this configuration. I think it's even possible that a future variation of this sort of leg configuration could exceed the efficiency of a nature someday since any robot is much simpler than a biological bird.