The similarity of robots to humans means that they also have to learn for a long time to walk on their feet and maintain balance. Tesla has so far operated most of its humanoid Optimus robots indoors or on smooth paths around the office, but it recently demonstrated their ability to walk on their feet on uneven ground slopes.
Image source: YouTube, DPC Cars, Tesla
This type of surface with a loose coating and a rather strong slope is difficult even for a person with a good sense of balance and developed reaction. The video shows the humanoid robot Optimus walking up and down a slope, speeding up as it descends and increasing the amplitude of its steps as needed, then slowing down as it moves onto a flatter part of the surface. The robot’s gait cannot yet be called graceful, but it manages to maintain balance even in quite difficult situations. At least the video shows successful attempts to do this.
According to Tesla representatives, they themselves stumbled in those places where the Optimus robot passed without losing balance. Typically, the robot does not yet use its vision to assess the steepness of the descent, relying only on sensors, information from which is read by a neural network and issues commands to actuators with a delay of no more than 2 or 3 ms, allowing the robot to maintain balance. It is difficult to say to what extent remote operators are involved in insuring the robot in such situations, but their assistance in solving such technical problems may be minimal, if any.