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Machine Heart Report

Editor: Du Wei

This is where the data for embodied intelligence comes from.

Tomorrow, the annual World Robot Conference will kick off again! Recently, many domestic robot companies have released new products, such as Zhihuijun's "Zhiyuan Robot" company's second-generation humanoid robot and Stardust Intelligence's new generation of AI robot assistant Astribot S1.

Overseas, Tesla also has new news on the training of its humanoid robot Optimus. The company is recruiting people to wear motion capture suits to imitate expected movements in order to obtain the large amount of robot training data needed.

Tesla defines such personnel as "data collection operators" on its recruitment website, whose main goal is to collect data, assist in processing engineering requests, and report equipment feedback. It is understood that the hourly wage for this position can be up to $48, as well as cash, stock incentives and other benefits.

链接：https://www.tesla.com/careers/search/job/-data-collection-operator-tesla-bot-night-shift-223213

What are the job requirements for a data acquisition operator? It has to be said that the requirements for physical strength and endurance are quite high, including the following:

• Must walk more than 7 hours per day while carrying up to 30 pounds (13.6 kg);
• Their heights range from 5'7" to 5'11" (about 170 to 180cm), while Optimus' height is 5'8" (about 173cm);
• Wearing and operating motion capture suits and VR headsets for long periods of time;
• Sustained hand/eye coordination and fine manipulation, physical coordination, kinesthetic awareness and climbing and descending stairs;
• standing, sitting, walking, stooping, bending, stretching, squatting, and twisting throughout the day;
• Flexible work schedule: day shift/night shift (8:00AM-4:30PM or 4:00PM-12:30AM or 12:00AM-8:30AM) and 1 weekend + overtime when necessary.

At the same time, the main work content of the data collection operator includes the following:

• Walk the scheduled test route every day to collect data;
• Wearing motion capture suit and VR headset, perform specified actions and operations according to project requirements;
• Start/stop logging devices and perform minor device and software debugging;
• Provide feedback on equipment performance;
• Analyze and report data collected during shifts;
• Upload collected data and write daily reports detailing observations and questions;
• Ensure assigned equipment is in proper and safe working order and transported safely to various collection locations.

Tesla's official Optimus X account announced the nature of the position in May 2023. According to foreign media Business Insider, Tesla has recruited more than 50 relevant employees in the past year.

Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot shows us the potential of motion capture as a data collection idea. Motion capture is a common and often cost-effective way to train robots to perform human-like movements, and Tesla is one of the first companies to use motion capture technology on a large scale.

However, in order for robots to perform tasks more naturally and efficiently, the amount of training data required is extremely large. Animesh Garg, a senior researcher at NVIDIA Research, said that the Optimus humanoid robot may need millions of hours of data to be fully prepared for its work in the Tesla factory.

This results in very high costs. As Animesh Garg said, "You can easily spend hundreds of millions of dollars on data collection, but the real question is, even if you do this, will it succeed in the end?"

Tesla obviously has to consider this issue. Musk previously revealed on social media that Tesla will produce truly useful humanoid robots in small batches next year for internal use, and is expected to ship them in large quantities in 2026 for sale to other companies.

However, since the second-generation Optimus was launched in December 2023, Tesla has not had any major version updates so far. With the release of Boston Dynamics' new generation of humanoid robots Atlas and Figure 02 this year, Tesla is obviously going to step up its efforts.

https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-job-training-optimus-robot-motion-capture-suit-2024-8

https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/19/24223626/tesla-optimus-humanoid-robot-motion-capture-training