How Strong Are Humanoid Robots? Examining EngineAI T800 and Figure Lawsuit

Evaluating Humanoid Robot Strength

• 💡 Humanoid robot strength is often difficult to ascertain due to marketing videos that may be selectively edited or feature robots with engaged safety features limiting their true capabilities.
• ⚠️ Rarely do public demonstrations reveal a robot's full speed and strength unless an error or malfunction occurs.

EngineAI T800 Demonstration

• 🚀 The EngineAI T800 robot from China gained attention with a demo video, leading to accusations of fakery, which the company addressed with behind-the-scenes footage.
• 🤕 The CEO of EngineAI took a kick from the T800, absorbing the impact while wearing padding, though his stance was noted as suboptimal for force absorption.
• 🥊 A demonstration against a hanging punching bag showed the T800 impacting a bag weighing approximately 45 pounds, which is on the lighter side for such equipment.
• ⚙️ EngineAI states the T800 motors can produce a max torque of 450 Nm, comparable to a Porsche 911 Carrera engine, but this metric is hard to directly translate to the force of a punch or kick.

Challenges in Measuring Robot Force

• 🧠 Accurately calculating the force of a robot's strike is complex, involving multiple motors, impact angles, and the robot's center of gravity.
• ⚡ Companies aim to showcase increasing feats of strength while simultaneously preventing mishaps that could harm their reputation, creating a tension in demonstrations.

Figure Robot Lawsuit

• ⚖️ Figure, a humanoid robot company, faces a lawsuit from its former head of product safety, alleging a Figure 2 robot malfunctioned during a strike force test.
• 💥 The lawsuit claims the robot exerted more than 20 times the force required to cause pain and double the force needed to fracture a human skull, leaving a gash in a steel refrigerator door.
• 📉 The former employee alleges he was fired for raising these safety concerns, suing for wrongful termination and whistleblower retaliation, while Figure denies the claims, citing poor performance.