Kawasaki is developing a robot to be ridden like a horse - Asia Times
(asiatimes.com)
from jordanlund@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 03 May 04:00
https://lemmy.world/post/29045440
from jordanlund@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 03 May 04:00
https://lemmy.world/post/29045440
Because of course they are.
AI generated video here:
NGL - I kinda want to run around on an AI robot panther. Can we get 4 more, paint them different colors, and merge them into a giant robot? That would be sweet!
threaded - newest
I can’t wait to ride this shit into battle.
I’m waiting for the laser sword as a standard option. It’s always a bad idea to buy the first model anyway, and you know it’s coming. I mean who in their right mind rides a robot horse without a light sabre?
I’d just like a nice laser naginata, and never mind the horse.
Monkey paw curls
“…it is now the 12th year of the 2nd American Civil war. The 3rd Roboticized Cavalry of Free America rode yesterday onto Texan soil, assisting Mexican forces in deterring Trumpanic Raiders from the fledging Mexican territory. Casualties were moderate, but sustainable…”
I see right to repair nightmare. It’s basically disposable.
If every instance above is not a giant red flag you’d walk away from, I have a great deal on a bridge to sell you. It is a novelty at best and worthless on any second hand market other than the dealer itself which is basically slavery for the average person. There is not a single standardized part that can be second sourced on such a toy. When the manufacturer no longer supports it, the thing will be disposable. So from a dystopian burn down the world perspective this is a great leap forward. Super cool concept, but unless there is real universal parts standardisation and the thing is fully open sourced, this is like everything that is wrong with the world right now; neo feudalism.
Kawasaki has a well established dealer network, I don’t see support from them as being the primary issue.
If Kawasaki motorcycles are anything to go by working on their products yourself isn’t an issue. You can get the full workshop manual and do everything yourself.
And fell in a pool? You might drive your car into the ocean. Better give up on cars.
Microwave your phone? Useless!
Shoot your dog? Planned obsolescence!
This isn’t internal combustion. Every motor drive will be unique. Robotics are nothing like cars or motorcycles. I’m excellent at working on cars. I’m pretty good with electronics. I mean my bedroom is a Maker lab set up for design and etching my own circuit boards and I have messed around with robotics a bit. I have also ported heads for nostalgia drag, pit for unlimited class sprint, and owned an auto body shop building my hotrod stuff on the side and owned a couple bikes.
I’m saying, in the real world, shit happens and that adds intelligent perspective on how you’d look at a thing like this when real world stuff has happened. It is hyperbolic for illustrative purpose.
Such a complex system will inevitably be connected to the internet. Anything that needs dealer support as a crutch is not owned by the end user. If this is not fully transparent and open from the start, it is a means of exploitation. Only fools trust others to do the right thing or care about track records so far. That is feudalism and will result in the dark ages exactly like it did in the past. There is no reason for any consumer to trust-, if an honest product is sold. Honest products are completely open source, and parts can be second sourced from an independent vendor unrelated to the manufacturer, and anyone can potentially replicate the parts and sell them. There cannot be any single choke point where if some asshat quits supporting or goes out of business, the hardware that people paid for fails. Trust inevitably leads to this stupidity, and to exploitation of the built in leverage. It is corporate piracy in the end, and that has to stop.
All of this faff, expense, and heartache and you’d still have something less effective, less green, less yours, and more expensive than an actual horse.
Yeah, but you don’t have to feed it and dispose of poop. :)
It eats grass and uh
I think it craps there too
Horses are incredibly expensive to house and maintain. I wouldn't bet on this being more, when you're not using it you can just stash it in your garage for as long as you want without having to worry about it.
One site gave an estimate of £3k/yr in annual upkeep to keep one in basic grass livery. A horse costs about £3-4k as well. A lifetime of, let’s say 25 years? That’s a total lifetime spend of £78k.
Let’s also remember that we’re talking this seriously about an AI generated video of a concept vehicle. No robot horse exists and none will in the near future.
But, it’s boring to just say “thing no happen”, so in the interest of conversation, what do you speculate the robot horse would cost, if they eventually managed to make a production model? Do you think it’d last as long as a real horse?
Based on what we know about the Boston Dynamics Robot Dog, which last time I checked started at $75,000, I’d expect this to be similar. It’s not automomous so that would make it cheaper, but it also needs to be robust enough to carry a person which adds cost.
robotsguide.com/robots/spot
Spot is small though, scaling up to rideable size won’t be cheap.
They state that each leg has it’s own motor so there would have to be some kind of standardization there.
I can’t imagine electric motors being THAT hard to swap out, I mean, my wheelchair has two of them and they’re user replacable. (Right hand motor and Left hand motor being separate units).
I’m not sure about user REPAIRABLE, that’s a different deal, but at a minimum user replacable.
electricwheelchairsusa.com/…/iq-7000-replacement-…
It is quite a bit different in robotics like this. Check out James Bruton on YT for a practical example of open source larger robotics. www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbDcUPed50Y_7KmfCXKohA
The motors used are almost always brushless because of the speeds accuracy and torque required. That means everything has software and electronics. This stuff gets very complicated fast. Most traditional auto makers are also outsourcing most of their software development and certainly not full stack or ground up oriented. This kind of thing needs to be designed from the start with every potential feature and future thing as part of the initial project. These types of things cannot be expanded easily. Like this is why China is actually good at EVs because they invested in building the whole thing from the bottom up the right way, instead of hack patching garbage and outsourcing.
You’re not very familiar with Kawasaki Heavy Industries are you?
Open source projects aren’t remotely comparable to what the big Japanese manufacturers can do.
If they ever bring this to market it will be exceptionally complex and require a supply chain that makes your concerns about sourcing parts elsewhere completely irrelevant.
Ooh brushless motors. Very fancy stuff… I wonder if Kawasaki Heavy Industries has any experience with them?
Huh seems they build robots already
robotics.kawasaki.com/…/ZX165UFE02001-E.pdf
Have you ever worked in industry. I spent a couple of years as an operating engineering out of local 12. I worked at asphalt plants as a groundman and loader operator. Most heavy equipment is basically a rental contract with caterpillar or whatever manufacturer. Once the operation is above a certain size, the company is in a position to negotiate contracts that are tens of millions of dollars or more. When a loader or other equipment has an issue, the cat rep sends their team in to do the fix. The only things that are done on site are basic filters maintenance type stuff and when the contract is up, the equipment is replaced.
In this situation, there is no potential for exploitation because ownership was never part of the equation. There is no room for manipulation because the contract covers everything except basic maintenance. This system is already feudalism. When a feudal lord interacts with another feudal lord, of course they can come to terms because each possesses considerable power. The stupid peasantry has no such negotiable position. Our only power is in democracy where we become the largest power against exploitation. This is how the real big picture world works. There have been various democracies in the past where citizens had power against exploitation, and all of those were fumbled by idiots and fools that allowed consolidation of wealth and assumed that giving power to potential exploitation was okay and that those in power would do the right thing. This NEVER turns out to be the case. Ownership IS democracy and a founding principal of autonomy and self determinism. People that fail to realize this critical factor are ushering in a neo dark age in the exact same fashion as what created the last. The future will look back on our era dumbfounded about epic and unrivalled stupidity of the people that ended post WW2 democracy by just giving it away for nothing of substance. It is unfathomable brain rot on epic scales.
Yes I have worked in industry, no Im not interested in your poorly constructed rants on feudalism.
You have no evidence for any of your claims of this proposed product being unserviceable, unrepairable equipment because it doesn’t exist yet and Kawasaki don’t have a track record of such anti-consumer practices.
You are a child that cannot handle being wrong, but you are and you have no argument or you would make one. Block me as I have done you. I do not care to engage with children of any age.
Westworld here we come
Begun the mech was has.
I don’t think they meant THAT kind of “ride”.
It looks like a panther to me.
Looks like an AI-generated article to me. That “vehicle” looks more like a baboon than a horse; just look at the butt.
I would have linked directly to the Kawasaki site, but it’s less news article and more promotional:
www.khi.co.jp/expo2025/concept01/index_en.html
Physical reveal here… but more of a model.
youtu.be/445K716GYCk
Favorite line from that video: “the user rides it like a horse, but its movement is way more dynamic and life like”.
Horse in the corner: cries
I’d take the actual press release and promotional material over AI slop any and every fuckin day personally speaking.
It looks like an overweight darpa dog.
As someone who owns a Kawasaki motorcycle and has been very pleased with their sales and service staff: won't touch that thing. I don't even know how/where one would refuel the thing; I've not seen hydrogen Stations anywhere here in japanJapan so far despite various automakers talking about it.
Yeah, you’d need a specialized service for it. Locally we have these places:
www.airgas.com/product/Gases/…/HY AZ1300SMT
I’m sorry but we already have horses. Things we don’t have which should be ridable are things like spiders, mice, sausages, millipedes, cats etc. Make one of those!
edit: looks like it walks more like a cat than a horse. I guess we’re getting a cat.
That’s what I was thinking. 2nd thought: Does it come in green?
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/a4376549-cb43-400f-8af2-495254ac3f9c.png">
It’s a Kawasaki. So yes, yes it will
I’m surprised you didn’t also mention ostriches and really fast snails.
I’m off to work out the engineering for a millipede-kielbasa robo-hybrid.
first thing I thought of.
<img alt="not Mr ed" src="https://i.imgflip.com/9sqj5k.gif">
Kawahorsey
What for?
All terrain mobility.
Then make it a form that’s suited for transport? Horse/panther form is primarily suited for animal, not for transport. I don’t know, maybe legs you can bolt to a container?
horizon zero dawn live action adaptation
This is a concept for a hydrogen powered robot for 2050. There is no shot they’re developing this and even if they are it’s literally a quarter of a century from now. This is just marketing BS.
There is a physical model, but definitely not rideable, looks like it just barely leans up and down, but they did get something real to display:
youtu.be/445K716GYCk
That video was pretty janky, I thought for sure it wouldn’t be direct from Kawasaki but yeah…
Someone fed the concept into an AI video generator, proclaimed a 2050 target date, so absolutely far enough away this will be forgotten by the time everyone realizes that this was zero actual effort towards anything.
So now AI lets marketing folks make their completely going nowhere idea into a substantial concept video casually…
It looks like a rDisney’s remake from a time Honor concept
Like the robass from “The Quest for Saint Aquin”. Not post-apoc at all.
Giddyup Buttercup is gonna sue for patent infringement.
How long until Voltron?
Jesus fucking christ. These are horses, not lions!
Good riddens
I’m so angry I have to upvote this.
Finally
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/6ba03cbf-ee8e-414c-8e08-25be0627221f.jpeg">
Worse horses
worses
So imagine far in the future scholars discussing, how heavy cavalry revolutionized XXI century warfare.
TBH something really useful would look more like a “General Grievous mode” exoskeleton.
Lightsabers would be good too.
I assume once equipped for warfare they’ll be packing like a 20mm cannon on the undercarriage, and crap out landmines.
Spitting out drones.
A cannon is good, but a vibro-pike like the old days would do too, imagine a robotic lancer charge at some terrified Muslim idiots.
Bet it sucks to ride tbh. I cannot imagine that being more comfortable than a motorcycle of any kind. There has to be better ways for rough terrain than reinventing the wheel. Bet the investors love it though so I suppose mission accomplished.
Why not? Our legs are already better than any wheel could ever get. Why not apply this to robots given they can be good enough
Because ambulation and passenger transportation aren’t the same thing otherwise the wings on planes would flap like a birds. As a passenger you’re gong to be very aware of the movements and it’s going to feel like shit.
Suspension exist, and if horses had built in suspension systems we wouldn’t have stopped using them.
If airplane wings could flap they absolutely would. Our biological equivalent is objectively better than any mechanical tech we have right now. It’s really hard to beat millions of years of evolution.
You can very easily smooth out passenger’s position same way a horse’s head feels comfortable on top of a horse.
I kind of don’t know what to say 😳
I want a cyborg horse that can be ridden like a quad bike.
Forget about Akira I want to look like POWER RANGER
Is this necessary? Seriously, we are heading into a climate crises (or more accurately, already in one) and now we need to manufacture this shit?
Unless this thing runs on fossil fuels, I don’t think it’s really going to have a big impact on climate change.
I guess there’s an argument that this is taking away engineering hours from projects that might have more practical uses in addressing climate change but I’d counter that sometimes engineers need a break from their usual work to avoid burning out from tedious incremental tasks and rigid processes. A bit of time and space for experimentation can be helpful, reinvigorating, and can lead to future discoveries and inventions if done right.
I mean, it theoretically runs on hydrogen so it’s zero emission. Beats a dirt bike!
Was wondering when this would be a thing
Wasn’t the ATV invented because it covered most off-road situations to get around quicker?
I’m a cowboy… On a steel horse I ride!