“We’re interested in getting this robot out into this world”, says Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert in the video, as part of MIT’s FAB 11 conference.
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Well, Boston Dynamics also tested a robot arm on top of its small robot dog Spot, which can now open doors.
It’s still got a big ol’ tether strapped to it for power (turns out keeping a 300lb robot powered is pretty tough), and sure, it looks a wee bit drunk for a few seconds there at the beginning – but just think about how insane this is. Here is Atlas testing its balance in the lab.
Atlas, the humanoid robot created by Boston Dynamics and used extensively in DARPA’s recent Robotics Challenge, leaves the lab in a new video to take a walk in a scenic Massachusetts forest.
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Unlike its quadruped friends, the version of Atlas that walked through the woods is still tethered to a power source and therefore not completely independent, Raibert noted. The other major improvement is a variable-pressure pump that helps with energy conservation and makes the robot quieter. Atlas in action outside the lab is new – no doubt Boston Dynamics’ way of telling a cowed planet, “Be afraid”. The competition, designed to get a humanoid robot to complete several disaster-related scenarios, was won by a team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
