Boston Dynamics has released fresh footage of its Atlas robot, this time completing a parkour course in style. The American robotics developer has created many high tech robots over the years, including 'Spot' the dog, designed to traverse terrain with total mobility while being built with safety inspections and data collection in mind. Boston Dynamics is one of the world's largest robot manufacturers and was valued at $1.1 billion after Hyundai purchased the company in late 2020.
Atlas was first created in 2013 thanks to funding and oversight by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and was initially designed to undergo search and rescue tasks. It is one of the worlds most mobile robots with 28 hydraulic joints and capable of reaching speeds of 1.5 meters per second. At a height of 1.5 meters and weighing 89 KG, Atlas is specifically designed to be an agile and mobile bipedal robot.
The newest video from Boston Dynamics is filmed in one continuous shot and shows two Atlas robots flawlessly executing a parkour routine. The mini-course in the Boston Dynamics lab shows the pair of robots jogging and jumping, as well as balancing at different angles and across a thin wooden beam. Most impressively, the pair of Atlas robots pull off several synchronized backflips. Following the recent showcasing of the robot's dance moves, the video is the latest example of how Atlas is evolving at an incredible rate.
A Robot That Dances, Jumps And Flips
In a behind the scenes video simultaneously released by Boston Dynamics, the programmers and designers of Atlas go into detail about how the robot operates and how it is possible to make the design so mobile. Atlas' Scott Kuindersma and Benjamin Stephens noted that parkour was chosen as the setting to show off the robot's capabilities as the discipline highlights many of the problems the team faces, such as keeping the robot athletic over an extended period of time, designing control algorithms that create a variety of behaviors that need to be controlled robustly, and how to connect perception to action.
There is no word yet on if Boston Dynamic's Atlas will receive a commercial release similar to Spot the robot dog. In the meantime, however, it is likely the company will continue to release more videos showcasing the impressive, and at times crazy, updates and improvements its line of robots have received. The question now is, what's next for Atlas after already having mastered dancing and parkour?
Source: Boston Dynamics/YouTube