‘It’s the robot we were all expecting – like C3PO’

Humanoid robots are advancing in labs and companies, but practical use outside controlled settings is still a long way off, according to the article's roboticists. Jenny Read of the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency says robotic bodies have not developed substantially since the 1950s, and that robot dexterity is a key barrier. DeepMind's DemoStart method trained a simulated hand before transferring skills to the real DEX-EE hand, which inserted a plug 64% of the time compared with 99.6% in simulation. Boston Dynamics says a general-purpose humanoid is many years away.