Kevin Wood Breaks Down the Latest Humanoids: Optimus, Xpeng Iron & More!

In this talk

1. 1:06

   What’s holding back general-purpose robots

   Wood sees data as the main obstacle to useful autonomy, even as companies make progress on robot hardware. He estimates general-purpose humanoids may be five to ten years away, though simulated data could shorten that timeline to around three years. He points to Tesla’s combination of hardware and AI as a promising approach.

2. 6:15

   XPeng Iron’s design

   Wood says Iron’s realistic walk helps explain why viewers wondered if it was a person in a suit. He notes similarities to Optimus, including linear actuators in the legs and forearms, while describing a different hip joint order. He also discusses a coupled waist mechanism and says the padded “muscles” appear to be for aesthetics.

3. 9:15

   1X Neo and deployment tradeoffs

   Wood describes Neo’s wrist as cable-driven, with two degrees of freedom, and says cable routing can reduce inertia by keeping actuators closer to the body. He views the robot’s light weight partly as a safety measure and says its slow dishwasher task was teleoperated. He suggests preorders help 1X gauge demand while it develops the system.

4. 16:02

   Unitree H2 and humanoid design choices

   Wood and the host discuss H2’s 5-foot-11-inch height, bionic face, neck movement, and angled hip design. Wood says the angled layout may help make the robot narrower than earlier, bulkier Unitree models. The host cites a listed price of $29,000 and estimates the education version could cost about $50,000.

5. 19:19

   Building a humanoid and choosing actuators

   Wood is designing a humanoid for his channel and is studying actuator layouts, joint configurations, and reinforcement learning. He explains that quasi-direct-drive actuators use lower gear ratios, which can make them easier to backdrive and better suited to torque control, though design involves tradeoffs. He hopes to have a robot running next year and is considering an open-source version for the community.