Written by Katie Hutton via TheMindUnleashed.com,
When you’re working on a factory production line and trying to meet ever-changing deadlines, being a busy robot can make life challenging.
It’s even more horrifying when you consider that the robot in question was designed to last as long as possible.
Meet Digit. The motorized mess of screws and wires known as Digit was the subject of the evaluation. And to be honest, throughout the twenty hours he was working hard, Digit put in a lot of effort and showed off all his tricks and wizardry tricks to everyone there.
Those unfortunate enough to have witnessed the tail end of Digit’s demos definitely had at least an eyebrow or two raised.
With a 99% success rate over about 20 hours of live demos, Digit still suffered a couple of crashes at ProMat.
We have no proof, but we believe our sales team orchestrated it so they could talk about Digits’ quick-change limbs and durability. #ConspiracyTheories pic.twitter.com/aqC5rhvBTj
— Agility Robotics (@agilityrobotics) April 6, 2023
After all, DIGIT EXPERIENCED SOME DEGREE OF FAILURE. AS DESTINED, HE WAS OUT OF THE TOUR FOR THE MOMENT AFTER HIS ENFORCEMENT. THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COMPANY, ON THE OTHER HAND, SHOWED A PHENOMENAL 99.99 PERCENT SUCCESS RATE FOR COMPLETED JOBS BY WAREHOUSE BOTS.
“We started with scientific breakthroughs and built on top of this world-class engineering,” they said in a press release.
“We approach everything with a focus on function. Our robots were designed from day one to do a job and get it done,” they add
In April, Agility Robotics released the video, announcing that the worker bot has successfully completed more than 20 hours of live demonstrations despite suffering a few “scrapes and bruises” while carrying out its responsibilities.
Liz Clinkenbeard, vice president of communications at Agility Robotics, revealed to the Associated Press that the company wants to show how a cool robot like Digit can pick itself up and keep going when things go wrong.
“We wanted to show that Digit crashed a couple of times, which is a normal part of any new technology and it’s not a big deal.” she said When Digit crashes, it’s often due to a software or sensor failure.
Is this a test of stability or an excuse to get Digit out on a nice spring day? Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. ☀️ pic.twitter.com/yFk6NSgsBb
— Agility Robotics (@agilityrobotics) April 28, 2023
“SOMETIMES YOU MAY NEED A REPAIR; FEW THINGS THAT TAKE MORE THAN 15-20 MINUTES”, HE ADDED. “WE WANT TO BE CAREFUL NOT TO HUMANIZE A MACHINE EXCESSIVELY OR WRITE THE INTENT.
WHILE DIGIT LOOKS LIKE A PERSON, IT IS REALLY A COMPUTER THAT CAN DO PHYSICAL WORK, AND FOLLOWS A PROGRAM.”
Since then, the images of the falling Digit have been posted on many social media platforms. The footage has led to some pretty raunchy jokes about the robot’s well-being.
Some of the comments made on social media about Digit hinted that the working AI might have volunteered because of the domestic tasks it was forced to perform for little pay.