Meet Bex, Kawasaki's Rideable Robot Goat (2022) | Hacker News Reader

Meet Bex, Kawasaki's Rideable Robot Goat (2022)

cycleworld.com

39 pointsrmason24 comments

(2022)

Not seen again, much. In 2024, there's a video of it as a cargo carrier, with a luggage rack replacing the seat. The foam outriggers are no longer present, so stability has probably improved.[1]

Unclear why they stuck those omni-wheels on the ankles.

Notice that in the 2022 video, there's a humanoid robot hanging around in the back. In 2023, Kawasaki showed off a better humanoid.[2] It's pretty good. One of the demos is that it picks up one end of a table, while a human picks up the other, and they work together to move the table, moving forwards, backwards, and turning to get it around some obstacles.

This is Kawasaki's 7th generation humanoid. There's real progress. Unlike Honda's ASIMO, which was abandoned a few years ago.

There are over a dozen humanoid robot projects now.[3] Some of them are pretty good. Most have hands and reasonable manipulation ability. When funding is mentioned, figures such as US$600 million are shown.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/video/watch/idOV179931052022RP1/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h66xSbIEdU

[3] https://james.darpinian.com/blog/you-havent-seen-these-real-...

I thought, “But Why? Why a Goat?” Then, “It is Japan. Awesome. Why Not?”

Let’s do a bike that is also a horse for Indian roads. Ride the Bike; if potholes on the road, it starts galloping.

Maybe it was just a poorly prepared humorous performance referencing Monty Hall problem?

This is astonishingly bad, at least as a demo. What does it do that is interesting?

It shakes you into sickness, it's a feature

> What does it do that is interesting?

Are you kidding me? Did you not see the lights that go up the goats neck and horns?

They wanted to called it iBex but Apple sent them cease and desist.

Goats don't have long necks, do they? It looks much more like a lama, which incidentally is also used as a pack animal. So they could just remove the antlers or do they serve a particular function in the robot?

The defense version ships with a canon mounted on the back and sides and it can separate and be recombined with a another functional half in the field if it takes damage.

The clunky robogoat is bad enough. The terrible frantic clanging music elevates the awfulness to a whole other level.

I enjoyed it for those reasons. It’s definitely a Japanese’s robotics video. Been watching them for years and they’re definitely their own thing.

“Elevates the awfulness to a whole other level” is not incompatible with also relishing the video!

(I was going to say “enjoying the video” but that’s not quite accurate, relishing seems a better way to capture the feeling. There’s probably a Japanese word for ‘taking fleeting pleasure in something awful but which if consumed too often or in too great a quantity will become briefly but overwhelmingly obnoxious’)

If not then probably in German.

I used to spend a lot of time watching Japanese robotics videos back when RoboOne became a thing. Biped fighting robots were cool. The videos were so god awful. I developed a liking to them in a Stockholm syndrome ish kind of way.

Not really eligible to be called a goat before it takes the high ground of the announcer's platform just because it can.

But that choice of music, the "it transforms into a wheeled unit, and back, for no good reason because both modes are awful", that surely is an impressive display of love for mechatronics!

Robotics designers will do anything to avoid the innovations of the wheel.

Not all of them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkhd-GSpI0A

Looks like someone watched the new Star Wars trilogy

Why would anyone do that?? ;)

And two guys following it with a remote control and a laptop. This is just as lame as the remote-controlled Asimos.

Whait, you want AI-Controlled netshooting policerobots on the street?

(2022)

Imagine that thing painted neon green and hurling down the highway.

I for one won't be trading in my old ZX-9R.

> hurling

Assuming you meant 'hurtling' then no, I can't imagine it, strangely the video disavowed me of any such idea.

If you did actually mean hurling, and weren't talking about the rider hurling from that slow, annoying rhythm, then no, I can't imagine that either.

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