Lay Your Eyes on the Most Bonkers Robot in the World

[Narrator] You're looking at the most

insane robot on planet Earth.

We're calling it, right here, right now.

It's the Guardian GT from Sarcos Robotics

and it looks like what would happen if Wall-E

spent 18 hours a day at the gym.

(Digital beeps)

It's incredibly dextrous arms are seven feet long.

Seven feet long.

Beyond being weirdly nimble for a hulking robot,

each arm can lift 500 pounds.

It's teleoperated by this dude,

who sees the world through the robot's stereo cameras.

While the robots arms may be 200% longer than the operator's

the machine actually maintains the right proportions

of a human's upper body.

The distance between those stereo cameras

and the shoulder, is the same ratio

as you have in your own human body.

Similarly, the distance between the shoulder

and the elbow, the elbow and the wrist

are all kinematically equivalent to the human being.

And when he moves the arms in space, remotely,

he is able to grab things in space,

in the three dimensional world and manipulate them

just as if he was right there.

So it's very intuitive.

That kinematic equivalent concept enables

a brand new operator with no training at all

to be able to get into the machine and

perform the same kind of tasks.

[Narrator] Robots aren't exactly celebrated

for their ability to feel but what makes this machine

so intuitive, is the way it communicates

non verbally with the operator.

So as you apply more pressure,

you can feel more resistance in your hands

and you can feel the amount of resistance

or pushback that you're getting from

the object that you're gripping.

So that helps you not only pick up a big piece of steel

but also you could pick up an egg without crushing it.

[Narrator] But why on Earth would you want

to turn yourself into an enormous cyborg?

Because if robots are good at one thing, it's brute force.

On a construction site, the Guardian GT

might lift and join pipes like this.

That's something that would require

five or six human beings and probably an overhead crane,

to facilitate that type of mating of those two objects.

And we're able to do it with one human being and the robot.

[Narrator] Which sounds like well,

putting people out of work.

This is the nature of automation.

It always has and always will replace

workers in one way or another.

But it also makes work a whole lot safer,

and potentially shifts those workers

to more creative and less repetitive jobs.

That and the construction industry in America

is facing a serious labor shortage anyway.

But what makes the Guardian GT different from say,

a robot that builds cars, is its lack of autonomy.

A human is always in command.

While I think that we will see

increasing amounts of autonomy and AI

I think the real role in work generally,

is for us to find as humans,

how to maximize the utility of robots,

allow them to do what they're really good at,

while still relying on what humans are best at

which is wisdom and judgment.

[Narrator] And bonus, the robot makes you

the coolest/most feared person at the office.

Yeah, I'll fill out your TPS report, right here.