Human-Centric Robots and How Learning Enables Generality

Abstract:

Humans have dreamt of robot helpers forever. What’s new is that this dream is becoming real. New developments in AI, building on foundations of hardware and passive dynamics, enable vastly improved generality. Robots can step out of highly structured environments and become more human-centric: operating in human spaces, interacting with people, and doing some basic human workflows. At Agility Robotics, our bipedal human-centric robot, Digit, is learning skills inside a digital twin of real-world customer environments, and beginning to achieve performance that exceeds any prior control approach, with less engineering time invested to learn new skills. By connecting a Large Language Model, Digit can convert natural language high-level requests into complex robot instructions, composing the library of skills together, using human context to achieve real work in the human world. All of this is new – and it is never going back: AI will drive a fast-following robot revolution that is going to change the way we live.

Bio:

Jonathan W. Hurst is Chief Robot Officer and co-founder of Agility Robotics, and Professor and co-founder of the Oregon State University Robotics Institute. He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering and an M.S. and Ph.D. in robotics, all from Carnegie Mellon University. Throughout his career, his research has focused on understanding the fundamental science and engineering best practices for robotic legged locomotion and physical interaction. At OSU, he led the team that developed ATRIAS, the first robot to reproduce human walking gait dynamics, and Cassie, which holds the world record for the fastest 100 meter dash by a bipedal robot. At Agility Robotics, Hurst is building upon this R&D foundation to develop human-centric, multi-purpose robots such as Digit, the first commercially available bipedal robot made for real-world logistics work. Hurst spends every day working to realize his lifelong vision of robots going where people go, generating greater productivity across the economy, and improving quality of life for all.