A video of the Atlas robots dramatically failing at their recent parkour routine has been uploaded to Twitter by actor and entertainer Kyle Hill. The blooper reel follows Boston Dynamics uploading a one-minute clip to YouTube highlighting the machine's progress, wherein a pair of Atlas bots performed an impressive parkour routine and even completed a couple of backflips. 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 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 aid in search and rescue tasks. It is one of the world's most mobile robots with 28 hydraulic joints and is 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, and it's moving in that direction swiftly.
The bloopers were uploaded by Atlas technology comedian Kyle Hill on Twitter with the caption "Reminder that science is still hard". In the video, you can see the high mobility robot attempt to run but dramatically hit the floor on several occasions. The way Atlas slams to the floor almost makes you wince in pain as it faceplants after attempting to jump over a wooden beam or as it loses its balance on one of its legs, falling to the ground in an awkward fashion. At one point the video hilariously documents that at some point during the robot's impressive backflips it hit the ground face first. The video acts as a reminder that science is a trial and error process and that we could be decades away from robots stealing our jobs.
Error, Error, Error
The original video from Boston Dynamics is filmed in one continuous shot and shows two Atlas robots flawlessly executing a parkour routine, no doubt after some very physical rehearsals. 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 must have taken several arduous, frustrating, and hilarious attempts before nailing the just-right version we saw uploaded.
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 more funny and humbling bloopers will be uploaded for years to come, in line with the updates and improvements the robot receives. One thing is certain: No matter how hard we suck at dancing and parkour, at least we're not as bad as multi-million dollar robots.
Source: Twitter