After years of breaking boundaries, Boston Dynamics is retiring its hydraulic robot Atlas. To say farewell, the pioneering company has put together a video montage of the mechanoid marvel’s best moments, including cheesy dance moves, acrobatic flips, and a few fails.
“For almost a decade, Atlas has sparked our imagination, inspired the next generations of roboticists, and leapt over technical barriers in the field. Now it’s time for our hydraulic Atlas robot to kick back and relax,” Boston Dynamics said in a video posted on April 16.
“Take a look back at everything we’ve accomplished with the Atlas platform to date,” they added.
When Atlas made its public debut in 2013, it had to be tethered to help its stability and was merely capable of walking in a straight line. Well, just about.
“A 1-year-old child can barely walk, a 1-year-old child falls down a lot. As you see these machines and you compare them to science fiction, just keep in mind that this is where we are right now,” Gill Pratt, a program manager at DARPA involved in Atlas’s design and financing, told the
Much has changed since then. Over the years, the robot’s hardware and software have been finely tuned by the brains at Boston Dynamics, allowing it to
The latest incarnation of Atlas stands at 150 centimeters (just under 5 feet) tall and weighs 89 kilograms (196 pounds). Using its 28 hydraulic joints, it’s capable of running at speeds of up to 2.5 meters (over 8 feet) per second, along with performing somersaults, athletic jumps, and 360° spins.
It’s also armed with a bunch of sensors that are used to perceive the surrounding environment in real-time and react accordingly. For instance, if you place a hurdle in front of the robot’s course, it will recognize the problem and traverse it. Shove it with a pole and it will gracefully adjust its body to remain standing.
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Who knows what’s next for the bots of Boston Dynamics – let’s just hope it’s not a robot uprising.