Adam Savage Tests Boston Dynamics Spot's New Robot Arm!

do hey everybody adam savage here in the tested  offices with tested family member spot   now we've been developers for boston dynamics  spot robot for about the last year and change   but very recently a brand new ability was added  to the spot family and it is an articulated arm   we sent our spot back to boston dynamics to  the mothership and they added the arm and sent   him back to us so today we are going to run spot  through its paces we're gonna learn about the arm   what it can do uh the interface that we have with  it uh and of course we're going to have some fun   but i want to point out that i'm working  in proximity to an industrial robot   and that my comfort level is based upon the  institutional knowledge of a year spent with   this little guy our whole crew is cognizant of the  dangers of working around him while his motors are   powered all right that disclaimer out of the way  let's get to work oh continue grasp succeed yes there we go hello oh here go get it pick up object i want to see this again that's  the object i want any orientation go get it   spot go get it oh it's so cool looking all  right continue grasp succeed operate arm the roll of tape is perfect oh oh  look at you your arm is stink wow   the arm is locked to the  world so there are different the arm adds so much complexity that  it's a little difficult to wrap one's   head around all of the possibilities but  boston dynamics has done a pretty good job   at localizing some of the tasks but this  one is the one i've one of the things i   find most amazing is i think in the i think  they used to call this chicken head mode where   the head stays in the same position  no matter what the body is doing yeah i mean that's this is just far out man so at this moment in  time spot while his body understands the shape   and the space that he's in the arm does not uh  even though it's got a camera in it right now the   way it's achieving this chicken head business is  through effectively dead reckoning it's using math   to know where the arm was and then making all the  calculations about the motor positions as the rest   of its body is moving which from a mathematical  standpoint is mind-blowing yes okay go back   there we go so the most basic control that  we can have with the arm is just to operate   the arm and with this you can use both joysticks  so left joystick up uh activates the bass   the bass motor here and propels the arm forward  and notice that it attempts to keep the head   in a kind of a reasonable linear orientation  if i uh left to right tilts the head but   allows the body to move with the head  in order to maintain as much as it can i find that really really  beautiful that's left and right   left controller up and down left  controller i think if i push the   the this button i get right i get hand pitch right  yep i get yaw ham oh my god whoa oh okay hold on that is really beautiful i forgot about  this one it's just absolutely gorgeous um   i was learning this software on a ever  so slightly different previous piece of   software and so now when you uh now there's  a lot more information here it's telling me   that uh it's telling me what the various joystick  controllers do and i didn't do that yesterday   when i was learning this which is great okay so  grasp release oh look at that um look at ground   oh look at he's looking at the ground oh  also i'm looking at spot's camera here operate arm there we go that's me  look the thing you should realize   is that when you are walking to the television  with your dinner and you're carrying a glass   of wine and you're holding onto a plate  and then between your fingers you've got   a bottle of ketchup and you're navigating  the stairs you are doing a set of actions   that is mind-blowingly complex from a mechanical  standpoint the number of systems monitoring your   balance and your verticality etc is gigantic  and spots the the the maneuverability of spot's   arm is all to give him the kind of range of  motion we have with our bodies but i'm also   like there's a way in which being able to move  this arm around humanizes spot for me and i just i   love it i love having this extra library of  kind of movements that he can do oh it uh we're just trying to get to know him we're trying  to help him walk out of the uncanny valley and not   uh creep people out and each time i like  understand a little bit more of the functionality   he becomes a little bit more of a personality okay  i'm falling in love with spot is that okay is that   too much to say the most basic type of grabbing i  mean obviously i can open and close his jaw there   and i can activate his arm and do stuff but  that's still a long way from me being able   to actually grab something i  mean i will try here we go uh   let's see here i'm gonna try and pick up  the no face over there oh okay uh let's see oh did i just i just knocked the head off the iron  giant i i think spot is establishing dominance you know when my dog rests her head on any part  of me it's like it feels like such a compliment   that's not what's happening here i'm not gonna do  my no face we're gonna do this roll of tape and   i'm going to attempt to do this manually to show  you how much easier it can be than the way i'm   about to try it all right here we go uh up over  open oh open uh ah okay wait how do i tilt that right uh hand sideways there we go no ah pitch  hand there we go wait no ah roll hand there we   go okay so moving forward moving forwards taking  all my breath all right here we go open pan move forward hey yeah now we're getting it  okay oh hey oh all right here we go all right open move forward i really i'm making i am making  a point here i promise oh come on don't do that this is the future everybody come on finally ah   i i i i think i personally need a break  from picking stuff up so i'm going to try   opening the door i'm really excited  about this one it blows me away that   he can even think about opening a door let's  see how well he does at the actual task okay open door here we go all right  buddy there's your door open door okay touch door handle doing there  she is it is a door that swings   in swing and the hinge side is on the right handle type yeah let's try this wait yep so  it's an in swing right let's try this open door he's like assessing it with his oh oh oh whoa   come on buddy you can do it oh  he's trying again this is amazing oh you almost had it are you  done right let's try that again   open door there you go there's your door handle  it is an in swing it is actually let's say unknown   let's have him figure it out the hinge is on  the right and we go open door all right buddy   you could do it it's looking at it his  cameras are like this is a doorknob there is so much programming going  on right now in his assessment   of his surroundings his distance  his attitude it's really cool i mean   there's machine vision oh there we  go oh wow sorry i don't mean to yell that is amazing that is that in 1991 i was working for chico mcmurtry uh at  amorphic robot works and we were making a robot   called ropi and ropi climbed using um one two  three four five six actuators one two three four   and uh five and six right so he could move his  arms out up and he could grasp and what he was   doing was he would climb a rope hold on to it  with both hands let go with the lower one out up   over grab pull let go up over grab the very first  thing we did with him when we started him up was   i think i was controlling him i activate  accidentally activated one before the other   had cleared it and i went like this and i broke  his spine i bent the whole thing and he never   grabbed a rope again just if you told me at that  moment what was going to be possible watching spot   open that door i would have been like yeah i doubt  it well this doubter is convinced that was amazing   well spot can open a door just  beautifully that was so beautiful to watch   but i still need some work on my  ability to get him to pick stuff up   so i i think i'm gonna head over uh to my  cave and make a trash receptacle which will   sit right about here and come back here and  try a game of picking this place up a bit   well with spots new found prehensility is that  a word pre yeah sure prehensility you know   what i mean with his new arm we think that  what he could do is tidy up a bit we think   he could go around the space picking up some  things sort of like a more respectable roomba no way beyond that at any rate we're thinking  that spot will go around tested picking up trash   and if he's gonna pick up trash he needs a place  to put it and when i look at the topography of   spot here is where it should go now i'm thinking  of a trapezoidal trash receptacle so that it's   got a wide opening that gives him an easy drop  zone it needs to rise up off of about right here   and clear both the back of the arm swing and the  legs so i think it's going to come up and be just   sort of like that let's get to  building okay so um first and foremost   yeah let's say it's that it's 12 inches  and let's say that it's what is that about six inches deep 12 inches  opening six inches deep okay two more this is why i love  styrene construction because   it allows for very wait till you see how  fast i'm able to rapidly prototype this okay one two three four those are identical we will  work out the whole size among them in a minute and now we'll use that as a  template to cut the others   one thing about using one piece as a template  for other pieces always use the same piece as a   template what i mean is i cut out piece number  a and then i used it as a template for piece b   then i used a as a template for piece c and d if  you use piece b as a template for c well you might   have made an error in the a to b translation  that now is going to compound in the b to c   translation and if you then continue to d you see  where this is going um introduced errors like that   can start really small in the just you know a few  hundredths of an inch and then ruin your whole day   so always use the same piece as a template  okay now we're getting to the gluing of the   styrene and i am going to do it well you'll  see it's just uh the thing i like about styrene   is that it's a weld bond which means this solvent  that i'm using it actually melts the styrene   and causes the two halves to actually chemically  join uh mechanically join effectively yeah   so it melts the polymer chains on each side  of the equation and as they dry they reconnect   and make one piece that's what welding i  don't mean to sound so authoritative no   one's ever taught me a lesson in welding  but you know what i mean uh look at that   long enough for me to describe it and it's holding  up this is if you really want to see something   remarkable find yourself a day when you can watch  model maker and my friend john goodson who made a   bunch of the models for the mandalorian seasons  recently watch him do styron construction he's a he's a master of the form uh i think  i'm gonna do the same thing again   right and then i'll join these two halves this is similar to how they build big  fish tanks out of acrylic those are also   weld bonds i mean they soak the acrylic  in those cases to kind of soften it up   get it ready but all right so i  think i'm gonna do this is this   right blocks there we go one two three blocks  are fabulous for styrene construction okay good all right almost there yeah oh okay so clearly that needs  to cut down a little bit uh i want to be careful   about moving this because it's barely being  held together i'm going to add some structure   in a minute but for right now oh yeah i way  over this wait is this the one that's meant   to be that is okay that's much more like it well  that's just gonna sit right there and i'm gonna   give it some glue all the way around  its perimeter and let it soak it up and   become really good friends i'm gonna cut out  some corners here just reinforce some stuff okay we are almost we're almost there with my  garbage receptacle it doesn't look like there's   any holes and this is what you could do with  styrene construction in a very very short period   of time okay let's go look at where this is gonna  sit so it's gonna sit like right about there which   means i need a couple of supports that go to that  and what is that that is just about six inches is   that six inches hold on yeah that's six inches yep  so six inches up and over one full width of itself   six inches up and one full  width of itself over okay oh wait a second is that just under 12 it  is almost exactly 12. so if that's almost   12 we're gonna go just under six inches come on there we go three four oh i get almost  exactly what i need just out of this piece   okay so let's cut this one directly  in half 24 yeah and that would be okay um because i need these all to be similar  i'm just going to hit them on the table saw   because i've got some uh width disparities  here table saw take care of that fourth width yep okay so that goes and that goes that's it one three using the ruler as my template here i'm  guaranteeing that all these are exactly   the same width which i need them to be because  i'm effectively making some little i-beam sleds   to anchor this uh this garbage can um the anchor  is just going to use a pair of feet made of   velcro to hold on to spot uh but because the whole  garbage can itself is super lightweight and weighs   ounces shouldn't have any difficulty and it's  not gonna throw off his weight at all almost okay let's cut four of these oh  let's cut eight of these down uh will that work yeah i think  that actually might work okay   so here's what we're gonna do we're  gonna we're gonna double up two of these we're gonna make an i-beam look at that right   i'm st i love working with this stuff yeah okay  so there's one and we'll get going on the other painting in the gussets yep yeah just want to get into all the small  spaces where glue might not have gotten excellent excellent one of them's i  did one of them upside down but it   doesn't matter that's totally fine okay now  right i need to adjust a little bit there   we're going to make a little bandsaw cut now oh right the distance between the velcros the  distance between is uh five inches outside the   outside okay so yeah there we go and that's  actually going to work out just perfectly   i'm going to get some glue on  the styrene to weaken it up   soften it up get it to want to accept  this bond it's an arranged marriage that's it yup yup yup that's good get some more  in there the glue is thin enough that it actually   wicks in where you want to put it  okay and the other one same smell soften you up for the kill add some  glue to grease the wheels suck it in of course i'm making the assumption that my  bottom is flat uh the assumption could bone me but   it's going to be flat enough oh yep so now i'm uh  yeah starting to delaminate there because i added   a little too much glue so let's uh let's add in  some strength just so it doesn't get away from me just adding some more surface area  to grab and secure in the corners   just to make it a little more robust i'm trying to do a lot in a short  space of time but it's still working   look at that that's what are we  half an hour in half an hour in   to a cantilevered offset garbage can for my robot  dog's butt okay so let's get some velcro on there all right moment of truth here we go spot oh he looks great yeah we had to aestheticize  it to work with spot's color scheme   all right spot uh yeah i guess  it's time to turn him on and uh let's walk him over to do some trash pickup   all right well if spot's gonna pick up the trash  he needs some trash so we've got some uh and   we've got everything from like you know pieces of  crumpled up paper to oh yeah this shifting load   it's difficult for my friend ken goldberg's uh  part picking robots cal that should provide an   interesting challenge we've got a i'm not even  sure he can grab this one 3d printed oh tape   measure yep okay we got that um i wonder if he can  pick up his own shoes my kids never could uh and   other borscht belt jokes all right it's a mess in  here i wish someone would clean it up grass wizard let's try it i think that's a good angle come on oh okay uh yep there we go come on buddy come on you can do  it there we go okay uh close gripper oh hey   continue grab succeed oh yes there we go oh oh come on come on  come on baby come on you can do it uh i was so like not ready to celebrate because i  thought it would just like fall off his back but   that was the most difficult i think of the objects  we have well i mean shifting load it's not the   most difficult of the objects we have i get it  but that was cool all right uh reset isn't that   awesome clears his trash receptacle let's um let's  go again let's see what else we can grab okay   let's try this piece of paper here grasp  wizard let's look at that piece of paper you didn't see that you saw nothing  all right here we go uh next coming in a little farther yep a little farther come on  come on all right close gripper grasp succeeded ladies and gentlemen i'm still learning the controls come on  there we go that's it let's see if that works oh yep there we go now you're in okay  next go get it go get it tiger go get it   it's all yours okay down down down excellent come  on in buddy you can do it a little more a little   more you're so close you're doing great close that  gripper yes you got it okay raise it up hold on all right turn it around let's get it hey reset yeah all right now we're  gonna go for one of his shoes that one right there yep okay grass  wizard let's see if you can see the shoe   i can go get that shoe buddy go  clean that shoe up next come on in a little more oh did you get it hey hey we did it   it bounced off the water it's  not my fault it's not my fault that is great okay uh we're  gonna try the stormtrooper helmet i don't i don't know if this  is gonna work but we will see   yep all right let's goose it north  yep and to the left slightly oh no   and a little farther down and close  the gripper oh successful maybe oh i didn't even dream that it was  possible all right throw that puppy away   we got to clean our whole  room ladies and gentlemen everything i'm doing now is  with spots manual controls   meaning i am directly controlling all of the  motions the arm makes but boston dynamics has   included automated behaviors to make a lot  of these actions easier and faster they also   made it possible to completely program the arms  so for instance i could create a put away the   trash program that would automatically  drop each piece of trash into the pail   once it's picked up and we will explore that  more soon once we get to know spot's arm a bit i better to pick up some more trash all right  buddy let's see here what do we got we got a   couple more pieces of oh we have a tape measure  that tape measure all right we're gonna try the   tape measure but i'm gonna do a piece of  trash just to get my momentum up nobody's   gonna get that piece of paper but you buddy  it's all yours you can have it it's all yours   close the gripper oh oh oh did we get it  was it a successful grasp come on oh we did   i am getting good at this this is  the pride that goeth before a fall there we go okay now the tape measure now the tape measure i  i i don't have high hopes for the tape measure all   right i'm going to walk you through the steps  that the grasp wizard uses to execute a grasp   and understand that each of these well these are  steps that i choose these are easily put into a ai   algorithmic flow chart for spot to  determine what and how we can pick it up   all right so i press grasp wizard uh there we go  uh and the first thing that i'm confronted with   is a view of his front camera so i point to  the thing that he's going to grab and that's   the tape measure and i point to it and now he  addresses the tape measure and i can choose how   he is going to attack it right now oh hi maggie  this is our live dog just for control testing nice sweetness uh you got to go over there i know  i love you go go go so i can choose the attitude   with which spot grabs this not the attitude but  like the angle at which he approaches it and for   the tape measure in its current or orientation i  think i'd rather be at a 90 degree straight above   angle so i choose that then i click next and now  i can move his jaw closer to the target and i have   a feedback on the screen as to how i'm doing  i can also jog for micro positional increments   just to make sure i am where i want to be yeah  i feel good i'm going to close the gripper oh oh   reset grasp failed and now he comes in we're  trying 60 degree angle this time let's do   there come on that's it successful grip okay  so oh okay buddy come on let's get it in there   all the way around all the way around all the  way around good job little buddy i know that   what we've been doing here this morning seems  patently absurd a highly expensive and refined   piece of robotic equipment used to pick up little  pieces of trash um but there is actually a wisdom   to the play and it's one that i first came  across when i was learning how to juggle   um when i first was understanding how  important practice was to juggling   i started unders i would have these tricks  that i couldn't get i would practice a certain   maneuver and i couldn't get it all day i'd be  practicing practicing practicing i couldn't get it   i'd go to sleep wake up the next day  try it again and it would be right there   in my hands waiting for me like the skill had  had fermented overnight in my head and all the   iteration i had done the day before even though  it felt unsuccessful was actually telling my body   important things and the same is true for spock  here we think of him as an individual but really   he's a platform and as a platform it's really  vital that every single one of us with spot   runs them through as many different paces as  we can imagine and each of these ends up being   the iterative skill base that will ultimately  create a spot that can do things we never imagined   but the play is really important  and a vital part of that it's why   lion cubs and wolf cubs and orcas all play same  thing for spot the play is a vital way in which   he gets to understand the world and  we understand the world that he sees   look the release of this arm is focused right  now much more on developers than end users   but boston dynamics api allows innovators  and developers to build applications on top   of the skills that spot can perform so what we  did in this video was a lot of manual control of   exploring each individual skill the next step that  i'm really excited about is rolling up our sleeves   and building some more complex behavior on top of  that library thank you for watching that entire   video if you'd like to support us further you  can head over to the tested store links are in   the comments below and you can buy things like our  demerit badges you've heard of merit badges these   are the opposite this one here is for measuring  once and cutting twice we went back and forth   whether to measure once and curse twice cause  that also happens we went with the cut twice   and this is one of my all-time favorites this  is when you accidentally release the mysterious   blue smoke that makes all electronics work and  then they no longer work you can't release that   smoke head over to our store get yourself some  demerit badges and we will see you next time

Channel: Adam Savage’s Tested

Views: 248,715

Rating: 4.911222 out of 5

Keywords: tested, testedcom, adam savage, boston dynamics, legged locomotion, robot dog, boston dynamics spot, boston dynamics robot, black mirror, boston dynamics dog, machine learning projects, adam savage's tested, robot dog boston dynamics, black mirror metalhead dog, adam savage robot dog, adam savage boston dynamics, adam savage tested, adam savage mythbusters, spot robot, robots, robot dance, dancing robot dog, dancing robots boston dynamics, adam savage spot robot, spot arm

Id: Z3-Fx-flm6M

Length: 40min 55sec (2455 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 22 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/TheGreenKnight79]

It is undoubtedly amazing. But still creeps me out. Especially when it starts bouncing.

[u/SasquatchSC]

I kept waiting for it to grab one of those swords in the background. I knew it wasn't going to happen, but still....