Add CV guidance and humanoid robotics context notes for Hexagon applications

2026-03-11 14:29:43 +00:00
parent 93be626512
commit e214cf4e0f
2 changed files with 363 additions and 0 deletions
--- a/02_Projects/Humanoid
+++ b/02_Projects/Humanoid
@@ -0,0 +1,199 @@
+# Humanoid Robotics Context
+
+**Created:** 2026-03-11
+**Status:** Draft
+**Related:** [[Hexagon Role Analysis]], [[Job Hunt]], [[Career]]
+
+---
+
+## Why Humanoid Robotics Matters Now
+
+Humanoid robots are having a moment. After decades of research and failed commercial attempts, several factors have converged to make humanoids viable:
+
+1. **Hardware costs dropped** - Actuators, sensors, compute have become affordable
+2. **AI/ML matured** - LLMs enable natural language interfaces; vision systems are robust
+3. **Labor shortages** - Aging populations in developed nations create demand for automation
+4. **Investment flood** - Billions in VC and corporate funding since 2022
+
+This isn't speculative anymore. Real companies are deploying real robots in warehouses, factories, and soon homes.
+
+---
+
+## Key Players (2026)
+
+### Tier 1: Serious Contenders
+
+| Company | Focus | Funding/Backing | Status |
+|---------|-------|-----------------|--------|
+| **Tesla Optimus** | General-purpose, mass production | Tesla internal | Aggressive timeline, targeting 2025 production |
+| **Figure AI** | General-purpose, enterprise | $675M (2024) + OpenAI partnership | Pilots with BMW, other manufacturers |
+| **Agility Robotics** | Warehouse/logistics | $150M+ | Digit in production, deployments with Amazon |
+| **Boston Dynamics** | Atlas platform | Hyundai | Advanced R&D, shifting to production |
+| **1X Technologies** | Security/home | $100M+ | NEO robot in pilot deployments |
+
+### Tier 2: Emerging / Specialized
+
+| Company | Focus | Notes |
+|---------|-------|-------|
+| **Apptronik** | Industrial humanoid | NASA heritage, Apollo robot |
+| **Sanctuary AI** | Cognitive robots | Phoenix robot, Canada-based |
+| **Unitree** | Low-cost humanoids | Chinese, H1 model ~$100K |
+| **Fourier Intelligence** | Rehab robotics | Chinese, GR-1 humanoid |
+| **Pal Robotics** | Research platforms | Spanish, TIAGo family |
+
+### Corporate Initiatives
+
+| Company | Notes |
+|---------|-------|
+| **Hexagon Robotics** | New division (2025), Zurich-based, precision heritage |
+| **Toyota Research Institute** | Long-term research, robotics focus |
+| **Honda** | ASIMO heritage, renewed interest |
+| **Samsung** | Investing in robotics startups |
+
+---
+
+## Technical Landscape
+
+### Core Challenges (Still Unsolved)
+
+1. **Locomotion** - Bipedal walking on uneven terrain, dynamic balance, recovery from pushes
+2. **Manipulation** - Dexterous hands, contact-rich manipulation, tool use
+3. **Perception** - Real-time scene understanding, object recognition, human intent
+4. **Planning** - Whole-body motion planning, task-level planning, real-time execution
+5. **Control** - MPC for underactuated systems, contact dynamics, safety
+6. **Integration** - Bringing it all together in real-time
+
+### Why These Challenges Are Hard
+
+- **Underactuation:** Humanoids have fewer actuators than degrees of freedom
+- **Contact dynamics:** Contact forces are discontinuous, hard to model
+- **Real-time constraints:** Planning/control must run at 100+ Hz
+- **Safety:** Robots near humans require fail-safety
+
+### State of the Art
+
+**Locomotion:**
+- MPC-based walking controllers (Boston Dynamics, IHMC)
+- Learning-based approaches (reinforcement learning for robustness)
+- Hybrid dynamics modeling
+
+**Manipulation:**
+- Contact-implicit planning
+- Learning from demonstration
+- Tactile sensing integration
+
+**Planning:**
+- Whole-body motion planning (still research-level)
+- Behavior trees for task orchestration
+- Integrated perception-planning-control
+
+---
+
+## Market & Career Implications
+
+### Why Work in Humanoids Now?
+
+1. **Timing:** Industry is transitioning from research to early deployment
+2. **Skills:** Robotics generalists with deep expertise in one area are valuable
+3. **Network:** Early players will shape the industry for decades
+4. **Mobility:** Skills transfer across robotics domains
+
+### Career Paths
+
+**Technical IC:**
+- Senior Engineer → Staff Engineer → Principal Engineer
+- Deep expertise in planning, control, perception, or manipulation
+- Can stay technical indefinitely if desired
+
+**Technical Leadership:**
+- Senior Engineer → Tech Lead → Engineering Manager → Director
+- Requires cross-team coordination and people skills
+- System architects often move into leadership
+
+**Founding / Early-stage:**
+- Join early-stage company, get equity
+- High risk, high reward
+- Best if you want ownership and can tolerate uncertainty
+
+### Skills Premium
+
+**High-value skills:**
+- Whole-body motion planning
+- MPC for underactuated systems
+- Contact-rich manipulation
+- Real-time control systems
+- Integration architecture
+
+**Commoditizing skills:**
+- Basic ROS proficiency
+- Simulation setup
+- General Python scripting
+
+---
+
+## Hexagon Robotics Position
+
+**What we know:**
+- New division (2025) of Hexagon AB
+- Based in Zurich
+- Developing humanoid robots
+- Parent company is global leader in precision measurement and metrology
+
+**Implications:**
+- **Stability:** Backed by large, profitable parent (less startup risk)
+- **Precision focus:** Hexagon's heritage suggests emphasis on precision manipulation
+- **Industrial applications:** Likely targeting manufacturing, quality control
+- **Zurich ecosystem:** Strong robotics cluster (ETH Zurich, multiple companies)
+
+**Career assessment:**
+- Early-stage opportunity with growth potential
+- Less equity upside than VC-backed startups, but more stability
+- Technical work likely focuses on precision manipulation and industrial applications
+- Good location for Claudio (Zurich-based)
+
+---
+
+## Learning Resources
+
+**Locomotion:**
+- "Legged Robots That Balance" - Marc Raibert (classic)
+- IHMC walking controller papers
+- Boston Dynamics Atlas papers/videos
+
+**Whole-body planning:**
+- "Whole-Body Motion Planning" literature (ROS, IROS conferences)
+- Contact-implicit trajectory optimization papers
+
+**Manipulation:**
+- "Robotic Manipulation" course (CMU, Stanford online)
+- Dexterous manipulation literature
+
+**General:**
+- RSS (Robotics: Science and Systems) conference
+- IROS, ICRA conferences
+- Robohub.org for industry news
+
+---
+
+## Open Questions for Hexagon Application
+
+1. What's the team size? (Early = more ownership, later = more structure)
+2. What's the technical stack? (ROS2? Custom? Simulation tools?)
+3. What's the application domain? (Industrial? Service? General-purpose?)
+4. How does Hexagon's metrology heritage influence the robot design?
+5. What's the trajectory? (Research prototype → product timeline?)
+6. Team culture? (Research-heavy? Engineering-heavy? Product-driven?)
+
+---
+
+## Notes
+
+- Industry is real this time, not just hype
+- Technical challenges are hard but solvable
+- Career timing is good: early deployment phase
+- Hexagon = stable parent + early-stage opportunity
+- Focus on motion planning and integration roles matches market demand
+
+---
+
+**Tags:** #humanoid-robotics #industry-context #career #hexagon