Farewell, Atlas: Boston Dynamics says goodbye to its iconic robot with highlights and bloopers reel

[midian182]

What just happened? Boston Dynamics' Atlas, the bipedal robot that we've spent 11 years watching evolve from a bumbling machine into a dancing, parkour-loving humanoid, is being retired. To mark the occasion, the company has released a video showing some of Atlas' highlights over the years, along with a few of its more spectacular fails.

The description beneath Boston Dynamics' farewell video, posted on YouTube, states that "it's time for our hydraulic Atlas robot to kick back and relax. Take a look back at everything we've accomplished with the Atlas platform to date."

Boston Dynamics never said why Atlas was being retired. The likelihood is that an all-new successor will replace it, especially as the text emphasizes that the hydraulic Atlas is going to kick back and relax. The use of the phrase "to date" is also telling.

Update (one day later): Boston Dynamics unveils impressive all-electric Atlas robot – A generational leap in humanoid robotics

Atlas was created in 2013, the same year Boston Dynamics was acquired by Google, with funding from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Designed to perform search and rescue tasks, the first version was an imposing 6-foot 2-inches tall, weighed 330 pounds, and was tethered to a power supply via a thick cable.

Boston Dynamics, which was bought by Hyundai in 2021, has been iterating on Atlas' design over the years. After barely being able to walk when first unveiled, it was performing parkour and backflips by 2017. A year later, Atlas was jogging, leaping over logs, and bounding from one 40cm step to another, using its legs, arms, and torso to drive its jumps and for balancing. It progressed to full-on gymnastics in 2019.

More recently, we saw some of Atlas' practical applications. A demo video showed the robot using its hand gripper to aid a (fake) construction worker. Atlas is seen picking up a 2x8 and using it to create a bridge before navigating the scaffolding while carrying a pack of tools. The robot is also able to throw a bag up to the worker using a 180-degree jump, finishing off its display with a 540-degree, multi-axis flip.

Another video, called Atlas Struts, shows off the robot's augmented reality abilities as it performs tasks you would normally see on a factory floor.

Atlas might be gone, but don't be surprised if Boston Dynamics unveils an even more worrying Terminator progenitor soon.

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Farewell, Atlas: Boston Dynamics says goodbye to its iconic robot with highlights and bloopers reel

 

[Endymio]

The most impressive (and if you're into such fears) terrifyingly advanced robot I've yet seen is OpenAI's Figure 01. If you haven't seen the video of its reasoning ability and ability to act upon it, I strongly suggest watching.

 

[VitalyT]

All of their products are distinguishably creepy. Looking forward to Creep-2 model.

 

[Just Some Dude]

If they ever become self-aware and attack, just hide until their batteries run out, about 20 minutes should do it I think

 

[BobDolesGhost]

The mechanical bits that they've developed have been amazing over the years. The software bits are the real struggle though. Precisely choreographed demonstrations are entertaining and can be eye popping, but the real challenge is to be able to instruct the machine with general commands in a vast number of changing environments and it figures out a way to accomplish them.

For example, a robot is in a factory and you instruct it to pick up each framastan coming off a conveyor belt and place it in a certain orientation in a packaging box. It sees the object you want picked up, it sees the path from the belt to the box, and the orientation of the whats-it, and it works out how to accomplish the task. You don't explicitly tell it that the gadget will be in at such x/y/z coordinates in its space, what pressure is needed with its grasping tools to lift it without dropping/slipping, what vectors to move the device to the box (and the individual movement actuators involved), and on and on.

One day that will be possible and on that day, I will park my butt on my couch all weekend and order my robotic lackey around all day doing my chores His name will be Dumb *** and I will shout "Hey Dumb ***! Unload and Load the dishwasher!"

 

[stewi0001]

I guess I am one of the few that think that these robots are cool and not paranoid about a robot uprising.

 

[antiproduct]

If they ever become self-aware and attack, just hide until their batteries run out, about 20 minutes should do it I think

Until they decide to start using humans for batteries and then we end up in the matrix...

 

[Endymio]

Until they decide to start using humans for batteries and then we end up in the matrix...

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) that plot device from 'The Matrix' violates the First Law of Thermodynamics, and is one of the more absurd elements seen in a Hollywood SF film.