A pilot feasibility study involving a humanoid robot operating in extended reality and using a pedal mechanism for construction tasks has shown a significant increase in the time required compared with manual labour.
Faced with the shortage of labor and the arduousness of the construction industry, and while the autonomy of humanoids remains limited, a team of researchers proposes to first use teleoperation. Their article, published on arXiv on September 30, describes a system that allows a single operator to control a Unitree G1 humanoid: the upper body is controlled via an extended reality headset, walking via pedals, which allows simultaneous manipulation and movement.
Two professions tested
The device was evaluated on two representative tasks from the U.S. O*NET Craft Database, compared to performing them by hand. The robot successfully transported tools on each test and painted a surface 80% of the time, but it took significantly longer than a worker.
The authors see this as a realistic short-term option: reducing the physical exposure of workers while accumulating quality demonstrations, which will then be used to train more autonomous humanoids.
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