I believe there’s a big gap between flashy robot prototypes and commercially viable products.
Humanoid robots like Optimus often seem more about securing business contracts or generating publicity, while real-world applications usually require specialized, less advanced robots, like one-arm robots or Stretch.
The development of robots like Boston Dynamics’ Spot tells us how long it takes to turn prototypes into practical products, and the transition from Handle to Stretch highlights the trade-offs between advanced demos and actual commercial viability.
I think humanoid robots are more of a long-term investment for future use in factories.
Factories already use a ton of different robots, none of them bipedal. You use people for when the task is too fiddly for a robotic end effector, like wiring harnesses. Or sometimes things with dynamic environments like loading/unloading boxes. For that use case, Boston Dynamics actually made a wheeled robot.
Spot’s use case is retrofitting robotics into things that weren’t meant for it. But it’s rarely the right choice if you’re building something new.