Tesla (TSLA.US) is accelerating the commercialization of its humanoid robot, Optimus: recruiting data collectors at high salaries, and starting small-scale production in early 2016.
The race to use humanoid robots to cut costs, enhance safety and boost efficiency in the industrial sector is heating up. Tesla (TSLA.US) is actively recruiting staff to help with its data collection for the Optimus humanoid robot project. The position is called "Tesla Robot Data Collection Operator" and involves wearing motion capture gear and virtual reality headsets to perform a series of specified actions. The data collected will be used for the deep learning training of the Optimus robot.
Tesla's job advertisement states that the hourly wage for the position is as high as $48, with the requirement that the operator walk more than seven hours a day and carry items weighing up to 30 pounds. To simulate the expected height of 5 feet 8 inches for the Optimus, candidates should be between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 11 inches tall.
Optimus' training process requires a wide range of data support. Animesh Garg, senior research scientist at Nvidia Research, warned that Optimus may need to accumulate millions of hours of data to fully function in Tesla's factories.
Tesla's chief executive, Elon Musk, revealed during the company's second-quarter earnings call that Optimus is already performing some basic tasks in Tesla's factories. He expects "Optimus 1" to begin small-scale production in early 2020 and to be used first within Tesla. He further predicts that by the end of 2020, Tesla's factories will produce thousands of Optimus robots and ramp up production to tens of thousands in 2026, when a production version of Optimus 2 will be released for external customers.
In addition to Tesla, several other companies are developing humanoid robots, including Boston Dynamics, Agility Robots and Figure AI. Meanwhile, Amazon (AMZN.US), BMW (BMWYY.US), Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz are testing the use of humanoid robots in industrial and manufacturing settings. Some companies are also exploring potential uses of humanoid robots in home environments.