Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot is ready to battle it out with Australian breakdancer B-Girl Raygun after showing off some new moves. (And no, this is not an episode of Black Mirror.)
In a new video released by Boston Dynamics on Wednesday, the company showcased its latest robot, called Atlas, breaking it down with some legwork combos and ending in a cartwheel. The robot demonstrates the use of reinforcement learning with references from human motion capture and animation.
The Massachusetts-based robotics company — famous for videos showcasing robots dancing, pulling Santa’s sleigh and even casually showing off how to parkour — shared the video on YouTube, showing how Atlas can turn a handstand into a roundoff and crawl on the ground (although the crawling could use some improvement).
Atlas, which is “designed for real-world applications,” is the freshest iteration of the company’s humanoid robots and is its first fully electric model. An earlier version of Atlas was hydraulic-powered.
“Robots are the bridge between simulation and the real world,” said Aaron Saunders, the chief technology officer at Boston Dynamics. “With the current generation of our electric Atlas, we are building the world’s most capable humanoid.”
Atlas works with machine learning tools, including reinforcement learning and computer vision, which involve the robot learning from its own actions and rewards.
In addition to Atlas’s new skills, Boston Dynamics plans to introduce new artificial intelligence capabilities for a dog-like robot called Spot, as well as Orbit, its robot fleet management and data analysis software.
Last April, the company released a video unveiling the new fully electric Atlas, showing the robot flipping its legs over its metallic body to stand at full height, displaying its dynamic range in movement.
“In the months and years ahead, we’re excited to show what the world’s most dynamic humanoid robot can really do — in the lab, in the factory, and in our lives,” Boston Dynamics wrote in a blog post at the time.
“The electric version of Atlas will be stronger, with a broader range of motion than any of our previous generations.”
In December 2020, Boston Dynamics shot to the top of the YouTube charts with a spectacular — and slightly unsettling — music video, which featured its highly mobile robots dancing to Do You Love Me by The Contours.
The video showed off the tech firm’s impressive achievements in artificial intelligence, including the ability to make a robot dance better than a drunk human at a wedding.
The nearly three-minute video starts with a bipedal Atlas robot jumping, shuffling and hopping around to the music.
A second Atlas robot soon joins the fun, followed by Spot and another robot on wheels, known as Handle.
Atlas showed off some parkour skills in October 2018, jumping over a log before hopping up a series of platforms.
“The control software uses the whole body including legs, arms and torso, to marshal the energy and strength for jumping over the log and leaping up the steps without breaking its pace,” the company said at the time. “Atlas uses computer vision to locate itself with respect to visible markers on the approach to hit the terrain accurately.”
But who can forget when the robotics maker unveiled its strange holiday video in December 2015, showing three of its four-legged BigDog robots pulling Santa’s sleigh? Nothing says Christmas like a couple of robotic reindeer.
The company’s BigDog robot, which was designed for military use, plays fetch with concrete blocks and can carry up to 340 pounds.
A screenshot of Boston Dynamics robots pulling Santa’s sleigh in a holiday video.
Boston Dynamics / YouTube
Boston Dynamics is one of the world’s leading robotics companies, with several of its models functioning in real-world applications. Spot has been used in hazardous inspections, construction site monitoring and alongside police forces.
— With files from Global News