Digital Event Horizon
Roboticists may be too focused on learning dexterity through video alone, ignoring the importance of touch sensing and safety features that can prevent injuries and fatalities. Rodney Brooks, a renowned robotics pioneer, warns that humanoid robots pose significant safety challenges due to their massive kinetic energy generation while maintaining balance.
Rodney Brooks warns that humanoid robots pose significant safety challenges due to their kinetic energy generation while maintaining balance. The lack of touch sensing capabilities is a major challenge in developing safe humanoid robots, as human dexterity relies on an extraordinary complex system involving over 17,000 mechanoreceptors. Brooks argues that companies like Tesla and Figure are chasing an expensive fantasy by investing in bipedal humanoid robots without addressing these fundamental issues. The definition of "humanoid" will shift as companies move away from the current vision-only approach to incorporating touch sensing and safety features.
Rodney Brooks, a renowned robotics pioneer and former MIT professor emeritus, has warned that humanoid robots pose significant safety challenges due to their massive kinetic energy generation while maintaining balance. This concern is rooted in the physics of falling robots, which exponentially increases with size. When doubling the size of a robot, its mass increases by a factor of eight, resulting in eight times the kinetic energy of a half-sized version.
Brooks' warning highlights the need for comprehensive safety standards and certification to deploy humanoid robots in zones shared with humans. Current walking mechanisms make such certification virtually impossible under existing safety standards in most parts of the world. The lack of touch sensing capabilities is another significant challenge, as human dexterity relies on an extraordinary complex system involving over 17,000 mechanoreceptors.
In his technical essay, Brooks argues that companies like Tesla and Figure are chasing an expensive fantasy by investing billions into developing bipedal humanoid robots without addressing these fundamental issues. He cites the importance of incorporating touch feedback systems, such as MIT's approach using a glove to transmit sensations between human operators and robot hands.
Brooks' predictions suggest that within 15 years, there will indeed be many robots called "humanoids" performing various tasks, but they will likely have wheels instead of feet, varying numbers of arms, and specialized sensors. The definition of "humanoid" will shift as companies move away from the current vision-only approach to incorporating touch sensing and safety features.
The robotics pioneer's three-meter rule stands as a practical warning of challenges ahead from someone who has spent decades building these machines. The gap between promotional videos and deployable reality remains large, measured not just in years but in fundamental unsolved problems of physics, sensing, and safety.
Related Information:
https://www.digitaleventhorizon.com/articles/The-Safety-Paradox-of-Humanoid-Robots-A-Warning-from-a-Robotics-Pioneer-deh.shtml
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/10/why-irobots-founder-wont-go-within-10-feet-of-todays-walking-robots/
https://rodneybrooks.com/why-todays-humanoids-wont-learn-dexterity/
Published: Thu Oct 2 18:47:28 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
