Boston Dynamics Releases Unbelievable Video Of Most Agile Robot Ever, See The Footage
Boston Dynamics released amazing new footage of their Atlas robot as it works on a simulated construction site.
Boston Dynamics has released some impressive videos of its robots in the past, but this video might be the most incredible one yet. The agile bot builds a plank bridge for itself, grabs a tool bag, climbs some stairs, hops up on a platform, and tosses the tool bag up to its buddy. That would be amazing enough, but then the bot proceeds to push a block off the platform, jump down on the block, and perform a perfect flip with a celebratory dismount to wrap things up.
These Boston Dynamic robot videos are always a source of hilarity, intrigue, and fear when they’re released to the internet. The videos of the bots falling or failing at their tasks are always pretty funny (and maybe a little sad). Then there are videos like this or ones where they perform a choreographed dance that are straight-up cool.
Of course, there are also the usual comments about the robot uprising and Skynet. Fortunately, these bots are all running on a script written by the programmers and engineers at Boston Dynamics. They don’t make any decisions and only follow the code that was written for them.
Now, if Boston Dynamics ever decided to put artificial intelligence in their robots, these videos might be a little scarier. Obviously, the end goal is to make these bots functional as tools on a job site or as tools to perform dangerous tasks, so humans don’t have to. This video demonstrates how one of the Boston Dynamics bots might be helpful on a construction site.
The particular bot featured in this video is Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot. The Atlas was built with feet that are designed for running, walking, and jumping over various types of terrain. Previous demos of the Atlas showed its mobility capabilities with parkour courses.
Now, the latest feature to be added to the Atlas robot that is shown off in this demo is the grippers, or hands. The hands allow the Atlas to pick up and drop items, as demonstrated in the clip. While most of the program runs on a script, Atlas still needs to autonomously find the locations and figure out the shapes and weights of the objects it interacts with.
This visual mapping and object perception allows the Atlas robot to do things like accurately throw the tool bag up to the next platform or push over the large box without falling over. It’s impressive tech for sure, and Boston Dynamics continues to up the ante with each video they release. The question is, when will we see these bots working in the real world?
While Boston Dynamics advanced its robot technology quickly, we’re probably still a little far from a real-world application. These robots are undoubtedly expensive, and would likely not be easy to maintain and repair if something goes wrong. Additionally, there is plenty of programming to make sure a bot like Atlas could perform this job in a changing environment, whereas the Boston Dynamics demos are highly structured.
In other words, you probably won’t be working with the Atlas robot anytime soon. Still, Boston Dynamics continues to push the envelope, and it’s definitely cool to see. It’s exciting to think of what they might show us next.
