[Music] robots Built For War AI pushing the limits of what's possible and tech companies diving deeper into defense things are moving fast and it's getting wild from a humanoid War Machine making its debut in a San Francisco nightclub to AI research agents that could replace hours of work in minutes there's a lot to unpack kicking things off imagine a humanoid War Machine making its first public appearance not on a battlefield but in a San Francisco nightclub that's exactly what went down with the Phantom MK1 robot this robot is built by a startup called Foundation robotics
Labs headquartered in Frisco they decided for some reason to introduce Phantom MK1 at the temple nightclub during what they called the quarter of the century Tech Giga party people at the event got to see this robot on stage dejing although from the looks of it the robots movements and music selection were all pre-programmed by humans behind the scenes now Foundation robotics Labs was founded in 2024 with about $1 million in seed funding the founder sanite Patak was previously known for a fintech startup called synapse a banking as a service platform that actually went bankrupt before
he shifted gears and poured his energy into robotics one of his co-founders Mike LeBlanc is a former US Marine who also co-founded a security robotics company called Cobalt AI together they're aiming to develop humanoid robots that can handle everything from manufacturing tasks to full-blown military applications seriously they're not trying to hide their defense angle at all pathic believes Advanced humanoids could be essential in future warfare and he's been pretty vocal about the need for the US to keep Pace with China's push in defense robotics in the words of an SFGate reporter The Phantom MK1 is
a literal war machine but let's break down the specs so you can see if it lives up to that nickname Phantom MK1 is about 1.75 m tall around 5'9 in and weighs roughly 80 kg or 175 lb it can lift up to a 20 kg payload which is about 44 lb under the hood it's got these Advanced cycloid actuators that Foundation says combine the performance of hydraulics with the efficiency and quiet operation of electric motors that means the MK1 can crank out a peak torque of around 160 Newton M but also has a back driving
torque of under a single Newton meter basically it's got both power and precision Foundation robotics labs envisions this thing being used for general purpose tasks everything from industrial operations to home service and entertainment and yes going to war if necessary Phantom's upper torso is like its Central Command with batteries processors cameras and sensors for 360° situational awareness they're also proud of how the robots lower torso balances and moves letting it navigate uneven terrain climb stairs and handle other confined spaces it's supposed to have a very humanlike gate so it can work in factories offices or
even disaster areas that were originally designed for people interestingly the core platform for Phantom MK1 seems to have been built on technology acquired from Boardwalk robotics a small Florida company that introduced humanoid named Alex back in August 2024 boardwalks Alex robot relied on a stable base to do tasks that involved Advanced manipulation now with Phantom you're seeing a Next Level version designed with a more complex lower torso and improved Mobility Foundation definitely has ambitious plans they say they want to ship over 40 robots in 2025 then ramp up to 10,000 in 2026 and more than
20,000 in 2027 they're targeting $1 billion in annual recurring Revenue which is nothing to sneak at for a startup that only came into existence about a year ago and they also dream of using those profits to build a base in Antarctica and eventually expand to the Moon Mars and Beyond it's pretty wild and I got to say it's reminiscent of the shift we've seen lately where more and more tech companies are getting comfortable with defense applications even big players like meta open Ai and Google have started reversing their anti-military stances and becoming more open to
defense contracts this trend might remind you of of Boston Dynamics they worked with DARPA years ago developing a humanoid called Petman for the US Army in 2011 to test chemical protective suits then there's Atlas also originally funded by DARPA designed for Disaster Response Atlas ended up pivoting more toward industrial applications under Boston Dynamics which is now owned by Hyundai the Russia by the way introduced a humanoid robot called Fedor back in 2016 that was allegedly for space missions but could also carry firearms if needed so it's definitely not unprecedented to see these War oriented robots
popping up all right Switching gears to research in robotics and AI a big collaboration between Nvidia and Carnegie melon university has resulted in a framework called ASAP short for aligning simulation and real physics the idea here is that robots get trained in Virtual environments where they can push their capabilities without risking a meltdown in the real world then ASAP steps in to account for all those pesky real world differences that usually trip up robots when they leave the lab it basically helps ensure that what they learned virtually lines up more closely with physical reality the
cool part is that ASAP reduces overall motion Errors By about 53% compared to older methods they tested it on a G1 humanoid robot having it do forward jumps of more than a meter pretty impressive for a humanoid unfortunately the team did face some hardware issues they pushed the robot so hard that some Motors overheated damaging two test units still the researchers are staying optimistic saying that every shortcoming is an opportunity to refine the hardware they've also made their code open source on GitHub so other scientists and developers can build on top of it in another
piece of news researchers using that same G1 robot developed a new humanoid motion framework that lets the robot sit roll around and stabilize itself using its entire body instead of the typical biped only apprach Ro the traditional humanoid control methods often have trouble dealing with random contacts like when the robot's knee or elbow might accidentally touch the ground but the new GPU accelerated rigid body simulator they're using can handle those chaotic scenarios in real time that means the robot can adapt on the fly to weird surfaces recover from Falls and do very human-like Maneuvers that
older methods just couldn't handle it's all about giving humanoids Dynamic motion that's closer to what humans do naturally now let's talk about another company Making Waves with a humanoid called atom the firm behind atom is pnd robotics spelled pnd D bti titics in some references they've been showing off the robot's dexterity by having it do calligraphy and other detailed tasks that require precise motor control manufacturing atom is no small feat it takes about 37 hours in total involving 3D modeling CNC Machining and so on it has 37° of freedom and is powered by 20 actuators
that's how it manages all these delicate Maneuvers Adam is controlled by the pnd PMC system which orchestrates 163 CNC machine parts and nearly 400 printed components they've used seven different composite materials and 13 specialized manufacturing processes all done inhouse the result is a robust humanoid that can handle fine motor tasks like assembling tools or balancing objects another big claim is that p& robotics has introduced an imitation learning framework letting atam learn Locomotion by analyzing human movement data the payoff is more natural agile motion Way Beyond the rigid mechanical steps you might have seen in older
humanoids as you can see the robotics world is on fire with new breakthroughs Foundation robotics Labs wants to solve labor shortages and push into defense hoping the Phantom MK1 will be the first wave of mainstream humanoids that can handle pretty much any task even Warfare Carnegie melon and Nvidia are bridging that gap between Sim and reality letting robots run wild in a virtual world and then actually replicate those skills in your Warehouse or on your Battlefield d&d's adom is showing off crazy dexterity with Advanced imitation learning and on the software Side open aai and Google
are basically trying to outdo each other in the race for the best autonomous research agent honestly it's fascinating and maybe a little scary to imagine a future where humanoid robots walk around factories handle fragile parts or even defend outposts in Antarctica all while AI agents in the background are feeding them real-time information about how to do their jobs most effectively whether you think that's the next logical step in our technological Evolution or a path to potential dystopia you can't deny it's happening fast thanks for hanging out with me on this deep if you enjoyed it
hit that like button and subscribe for more updates on NextGen robots and AI breakthroughs we've only scratched the surface on what's possible and I can't wait to see what's coming next thanks for watching and I'll catch you in the next one
