Why Doesn't Tesla Plan Clothing for Its Humanoid Robot Optimus? (No Joke, It's Important!)

[Kassander]

We humans wear clothing for various reasons (to avoid being naked, for temperature protection, protection from dirt and moisture, to express our individuality, etc.). Some of these reasons may not be important for robots, but others are even more critical. Protection from moisture, dirt, and dust is more important for robots than for humans. These factors can destroy robots, or at least it is very time-consuming to clean a robot constructed similarly to Optimus from dust and dirt.

Even when performing simple kitchen tasks involving fats or oils for cooking, the grease will get everywhere. If he works with flour, cleaning Optimus afterwards will be more tedious than cooking yourself. He can't wash his hands like we do; he would need to at least wear gloves to do so.

One might assume that a simple solution would be to cover a humanoid robot with a permanent full-body rubber or latex layer. However, if such a rubber or latex layer is part of the robot itself, it has two significant disadvantages.

First, this layer will quickly wear out at joints, especially at the hands and finger joints. If it is part of the robot itself, it requires cost- and time-intensive repairs. Damage to this layer while working would have the same consequence.

Second, just as we take off our shoes when we go from outside to inside, a robot that also does gardening needs this capability too. Otherwise, it would bring dirt from outside to inside. It is not enough that he can theoretically clean himself; just as we don't wash our feet when we go from the garden into our house but only take off our shoes, a humanoid robot must have this capability too. After all, there is usually no washing facility at the entrance. He must be able to take off his dirty shoes to enter the house after gardening. If the solution was simply a full-body rubber or latex coating, he would have to walk to the nearest washing facility with dirty feet, or the owner would have to wash the robot's feet at the entrance

All in all, I would say a humanoid robot that is supposed to perform household tasks needs at least the following four items of clothing:

1. A full-body suit made of rubber or latex that covers everything up to the neck.
2. A face mask made of the same material that overlaps with the suit at the neck.
3. Gloves that he puts on over the suit to protect it.
4. Shoes if he is also supposed to work outdoors.

 

I will now go into more detail about how the mentioned clothing items should be designed and why it is important to consider this clothing during the development phase of the robot.

Full-Body Suit: This should look similar to a diver's wetsuit and cover everything from the neck down, including hands and feet, completely and waterproof. This would protect most of the robot's body from water and dirt. If the suit is made of latex or rubber, it would be difficult to put on. An inner layer of silk or a similarly robust and slippery material would probably be suitable to make it easier to put on the suit. Vents for ventilation fans must also be planned.

Face Mask: The face mask should be made of the same materials as the full-body suit, both inside and outside. At the neck, it should overlap with the full-body suit to provide protection for the entire body. Transparent plastic should be used at the camera locations.

Gloves: There should be two types of gloves, ones for indoor tasks (mainly cooking) that are thinner and allow for fine work, and more robust ones for outdoor tasks that can handle heavy work like carrying bricks without being damaged. You wouldn’t want to use the same gloves for cooking that were previously used for gardening.

Shoes: To ensure easy putting on and taking off and maximum protection, they should look more like boots.

 

Reasons why clothing must be included in the robot's development phase:

• The robot must be programmed to put on such clothing items. Therefore, it is essential to consider this during the planning phase of the robot.
• The robot must be programmed to function with the clothing. Walking with and without shoes and with and without a suit must probably be trained separately. Tasks with hands require different sensitivity and effort when the robot is wearing a suit and gloves. Therefore, the robot must be programmed to manage with these clothing items.
• The ventilation system and the clothing must be coordinated. The ventilation outlets should be chosen so that the clothing does not impair ventilation.
• The robot must be programmed to check if its clothing is properly worn and thus provides protection. Whether the clothing is dirty or damaged, which would impair protection or cause contamination, must also be checked.

 

Another advantage would be to give your robot individuality. Many consumers value individual design. Just think of the many different smartphone cases. If a robot manufacturer offers clothing in various designs, this could be an additional source of income. Companies that purchase Optimus could have their company logo printed on the suit for advertising purposes. Overall, this could generate more money, which should be an incentive for a manufacturer like Tesla.

 

Therefore, the question arises as to why nothing has been heard about robot clothing so far. After all, for the reasons described, clothing should already be considered during the development phase.

[Phi for All]

Clothes are basically tools that a robot doesn't need. Giving them a more human appearance is the only real reason to clothe them. Your engineering concerns are based on poor designs. Robots can be built with all these features integrated into their systems, without the need to deal with loose fabric all over their bodies.

[iNow]

Paint them on

[CharonY]

10 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

Clothes are basically tools that a robot doesn't need. Giving them a more human appearance is the only real reason to clothe them. Your engineering concerns are based on poor designs. Robots can be built with all these features integrated into their systems, without the need to deal with loose fabric all over their bodies.

It does look like starting with a solution and working backward.  Also, isn't Tesla kind of way behind with their robotic solutions? This is probably even more problematic as they want to have a general-purpose solution, which probably does not help to get a workable product out.

[Kassander]

15 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

Clothes are basically tools that a robot doesn't need. Giving them a more human appearance is the only real reason to clothe them. Your engineering concerns are based on poor designs. Robots can be built with all these features integrated into their systems, without the need to deal with loose fabric all over their bodies.

But how should you clean Optimus's hand after or between kitchen work? As you can see from the picture, it is very complexly designed. I don't think you can just wash your hands. It would certainly be necessary to wear gloves for such activities.

[exchemist]

1 minute ago, Kassander said:

But how should you clean Optimus's hand after or between kitchen work? As you can see from the picture, it is very complexly designed. I don't think you can just wash your hands. It would certainly be necessary to wear gloves for such activities.

I would assume any half-decent robot would be able to clean itself, or at least be provided with a cleaning apparatus to do the job, without the need for laborious  human intervention which would defeat the labour-saving objective of the robot. 

[CharonY]

Just now, exchemist said:

I would assume any half-decent robot would be able to clean itself, or at least be provided with a cleaning apparatus to do the job, without the need for laborious  human intervention which would defeat the labour-saving objective of the robot. 

Exactly. If it wasn't able to do so, it is not multi-purpose to begin with. Are they actually at the point where the robot can do things without being remotely controlled?

One should also point out, that beside the coolness factor, there is no real functional reason to make it look like a human, which would make it likely less functional for certain tasks. But being cool is probably a more important point for Tesla to catch up to competitors.

 

[Kassander]

10 minutes ago, exchemist said:

I would assume any half-decent robot would be able to clean itself, or at least be provided with a cleaning apparatus to do the job, without the need for laborious  human intervention which would defeat the labour-saving objective of the robot. 

That's a good point, but for example, while cooking, you also need to wash your hands frequently to avoid touching clean dishes or other items with dirty hands. Also, for hygiene reasons, if you have handled raw poultry and then want to handle fresh food, you need clean hands. I believe it would take too long in practice if the robot had to clean each individual part of its fingers separately. Many things need to be done quickly while cooking. If the robot is truly to be a help in the kitchen, it needs to be able to continue working quickly.

[exchemist]

15 minutes ago, Kassander said:

That's a good point, but for example, while cooking, you also need to wash your hands frequently to avoid touching clean dishes or other items with dirty hands. Also, for hygiene reasons, if you have handled raw poultry and then want to handle fresh food, you need clean hands. I believe it would take too long in practice if the robot had to clean each individual part of its fingers separately. Many things need to be done quickly while cooking. If the robot is truly to be a help in the kitchen, it needs to be able to continue working quickly.

Is food preparation among the tasks it is claimed to be capable of? 

[Phi for All]

33 minutes ago, Kassander said:

But how should you clean Optimus's hand after or between kitchen work? As you can see from the picture, it is very complexly designed. I don't think you can just wash your hands. It would certainly be necessary to wear gloves for such activities.

It costs as much as many cars do. It's supposed to clean house for you. Why not design the parts most likely to get wet to be water-resistant?

[Kassander]

6 minutes ago, exchemist said:

Is food preparation among the tasks it is claimed to be capable of? 

At least there are many pictures showing that the Tesla-Bot can handle an egg. So I assume they are trying to program it to help in the kitchen, at least to some extent.

[Phi for All]

27 minutes ago, CharonY said:

One should also point out, that beside the coolness factor, there is no real functional reason to make it look like a human, which would make it likely less functional for certain tasks. But being cool is probably a more important point for Tesla to catch up to competitors.

They may have found that, in order to deal with human houses, the best overall design is humanoid. It would be interesting to see a robot that could handle doorknobs, laundry hampers, trash cans, pillowcases, toilet plungers, and vacuum cleaners without human-like limbs and digits.

[exchemist]

5 minutes ago, Kassander said:

At least there are many pictures showing that the Tesla-Bot can handle an egg. So I assume they are trying to program it to help in the kitchen, at least to some extent.

No, that does not follow. The point about an egg is its fragility. So a demonstration that it can pick up an egg without dropping or crushing it shows the sensitivity of the mechanism, not that that it is intended to prepare food.

[Kassander]

10 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

It costs as much as many cars do. It's supposed to clean house for you. Why not design the parts most likely to get wet to be water-resistant?

I'm not sure if moving parts like the robot's fingers can be made water-resistant enough to ensure no water gets into the electronics, especially since the fingers move during washing. The easiest solution would be to have it wear gloves, which would also provide additional protection for the robot's plastic parts. This would prevent scratches on the palm. While this might be negligible when cooking, heavier work could cause larger scratches, and gloves would provide protection in this case as well.

17 minutes ago, exchemist said:

No, that does not follow. The point about an egg is its fragility. So a demonstration that it can pick up an egg without dropping or crushing it shows the sensitivity of the mechanism, not that that it is intended to prepare food.

You're right, but if Optimus can't cook, there isn't much else left for him to do around the house. Vacuum cleaners and mopping robots already exist, and for everything else, there are household appliances. At most, he could unload and load the dishwasher and washing machine, and perhaps clean shelves.

21 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

They may have found that, in order to deal with human houses, the best overall design is humanoid. It would be interesting to see a robot that could handle doorknobs, laundry hampers, trash cans, pillowcases, toilet plungers, and vacuum cleaners without human-like limbs and digits.

I completely agree with you here. I've also considered if there could be a better design, but the disadvantages always outweigh the advantages. As you said, everything around us is tailored to humans.

[exchemist]

25 minutes ago, Kassander said:

I'm not sure if moving parts like the robot's fingers can be made water-resistant enough to ensure no water gets into the electronics, especially since the fingers move during washing. The easiest solution would be to have it wear gloves, which would also provide additional protection for the robot's plastic parts. This would prevent scratches on the palm. While this might be negligible when cooking, heavier work could cause larger scratches, and gloves would provide protection in this case as well.

You're right, but if Optimus can't cook, there isn't much else left for him to do around the house. Vacuum cleaners and mopping robots already exist, and for everything else, there are household appliances. At most, he could unload and load the dishwasher and washing machine, and perhaps clean shelves.

I completely agree with you here. I've also considered if there could be a better design, but the disadvantages always outweigh the advantages. As you said, everything around us is tailored to humans.

Apart from  vacuuming and mopping floors, there is still the cleaning of ovens, cookers, cupboards, basins and toilets, dusting, polishing metalware and so on(I have a Brazilian cleaning lady who does these things for me.) Also ironing. So there are still things to do without getting into food safety critical tasks. But my cleaning lady does this in 3hrs per week. So very poor use of a highly expensive robot, I would agree,  unless it is shared among numerous households.

[CharonY]

38 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

They may have found that, in order to deal with human houses, the best overall design is humanoid. It would be interesting to see a robot that could handle doorknobs, laundry hampers, trash cans, pillowcases, toilet plungers, and vacuum cleaners without human-like limbs and digits.

I kind of doubt that. Obviously, I can only speculate, but there is no good reason to stick to a human design. There are quite a few solutions in terms of locomotion that can deal with stairs and navigate tight areas without having the difficulties of bipedal locomotion. Are two arms really the optimal solution to everything? How about five fingers? From the images it at least appears that most joints seem to mimic that of humans. Again, not sure whether it is really optimized or just a copy. There are simple remote-controlled service robots in Japan, which can to a range of choirs including cleaning, opening doors, doing laundry etc. but only copy the human shape mostly to appeal to their clients. 

That being said, there is a big branch in robotics that focuses on humanoid robots not necessarily because of functionality, but because we rather want to be surrounding by something that looks like us. Many older humanoid systems (famously the Asimo) were built specifically with the purpose to mimic human movement more than anything else. The Tesla robot is probably going that route and enhance it with their software (and power) capabilities. But from what I read- to make things general-purpose is still way off and Tesla has not demonstrated a clear path to that yet.

I may get it wrong, but it looks to me that the goal was really to mimic human movement first (like Asimo) and then try to figure out how to make use the design to create the desired actions. So a bit like the opposite of a purpose built system, where you start with the desired list of actions and then create a system that can do that. While it does make sense conceptionally, the devil is in the details and which is where all-purpose systems often fail. 

[MigL]

Most robots are not humanoid.
It is only E Musk's delusions of grandeur that make him want to create humanoid robots.
An intelligent, self loading/emptying dishwasher is a robot, and way more efficient than a humanoid robot would be at dishwashing.

I can see the daily repair bills now; clothing and garments stuck or jamming the joints of the robot rendering it inoperable.