When it comes to robotics, a LOT of companies are working hard to try and make them not
just happen, but happen in ways that go beyond the basics of robot making. Because if you
really think about it, it's not hard to make a robot that can do one thing or another.
But to have a robot that can act and move like a human? That's another thing entirely.
Boston Dynamics has been a place that absolutely goes and makes robots that can do all sorts
of cool things, and their robot Atlas might just be the best of the bunch. Allow us to
show you Boston Dynamics' Atlas Things You Didn't Know!
4. Atlas So, what exactly is Atlas? Well, put simply,
it's a robot that was designed to be humanoid in form and in mobility. Even calling it the
"most dynamic humanoid robot". We'll let Boston Dynamics tell the rest of the story here:
" Atlas’s advanced control system and state-of-the-art hardware give the robot the power and balance
to demonstrate human-level agility. Atlas has one of the world’s most compact
mobile hydraulic systems. A custom battery, valves, and a compact hydraulic power unit
enable Atlas to deliver high power to any of its 28 hydraulic joints for impressive
feats of mobility. Atlas’s advanced control system enables
highly diverse and agile locomotion, while algorithms reason through complex dynamic
interactions involving the whole body and environment to plan movements. Atlas uses
3D printed parts to give it the strength-to-weight ratio necessary for leaps and somersaults.
And that only scratches the surface of what this robot can do. What do we mean by that?
Well, Boston Dynamics decided that they wanted this robot to dance.
No, really. 3. Dancing Robot
The man who designed some of the world’s most advanced dynamic robots was on a daunting
mission: programming his creations to dance to the beat with a mix of fluid, explosive
and expressive motions that are almost human. The results? Almost a year and half of choreography,
simulation, programming and upgrades that were capped by two days of filming to produce
a video running at less than 3 minutes. The clip, showing robots dancing to the 1962 hit
“Do You Love Me?” by The Contours, was an instant hit on social media, attracting
more than 23 million views during the first week.
It shows two of Boston Dynamics’ humanoid Atlas research robots doing the twist, the
mashed potato and other classic moves, joined by Spot, a doglike robot, and Handle, a wheeled
robot designed for lifting and moving boxes in a warehouse or truck.
Boston Dynamics founder and chairperson Marc Raibert says what the robot maker learned
was far more valuable. “It turned out that we needed to upgrade
the robot in the middle of development in order for it to be strong enough and to have
enough energy to do the whole performance without stopping. So that was a real benefit
to the design,” Raibert says. The difficult challenge of teaching robots
to dance also pushed Boston Dynamics engineers to develop better motion-programming tools
that let robots reconcile balance, bouncing and doing a performance simultaneously.
“So we went from having very crude tools for doing that to having very effective rapid-generation
tools so that by the time we were done, we could generate new dance steps very quickly
and integrate them into the performance,” Raibert says.
The quality of the robots’ dancing was so good that some viewers online said they couldn’t
believe their eyes. Some applauded the robots’ moves and the technology powering them. Others
appeared to be freaked out by some of their expressive routines.
Others added that what they were seeing was probably computer-generated imagery, or CGI.
Not so, Raibert says. What was on display was a results of long,
hard work fueled by a determination to program the robot to dance to the beat, he says.
“We didn’t want a robot doing robotlike dancing. We wanted it to do human dancing
and, you know, when a human dances, the music has a beat and their whole body moves to it
— their hands, their body, their head,” he says. “And we tried to get all of those
things involved and coordinated so that it, you know, it was ... it looked like the robot
was having fun and really moved with the music. And I think that had a lot to do with the
result of the production.” Teaching robots to dance with fluid and expressive
motions was a new challenge for a company that spent years building robots that have
functional abilities like walking, navigating in rough terrain, pick things up with their
hands and use attached advanced sensors to monitor and sense many things, Raibert says.
“You know, our job is to try and stretch the boundaries of what robots can do, both
in terms of the outer research boundary, but also in terms of practical applications. And
I think when people see the new things that robots can do, it excites them,” he says.
The advanced Atlas robot relies on a wide array of sensors to execute the dance moves,
including 28 actuators — devices that serve as muscles by converting electronic or physical
signal into movement — as well as a gyroscope that helps it to balance, and three quad-core
onboard computers, including one that processes perception signals and two that control movement.
Still, the fact that video of the dancing robots has fired up the public imagination
and inspired a sense of awe was gratifying, Raibert says.
“We hoped ... that people would enjoy it and they seem to. We’ve gotten calls from
all around the world,” Raibert says. “We got a call from one of the sound engineers
who had recorded the original Contours performance back in the ’60s. And he said that his whole
crew of Motown friends had been passing it around and been excited by it.”
So yes, there is a robot out there that can well and truly dance like a human...this couldn't
get any worse...oh wait, it can. 2. Parkour Master
Almost eight months after Boston Dynamics fascinated and frightened the world with a
video of robots dancing like humans, the robotics company has amazed everyone once again.
This time, the team is swapping the dance floor for an obstacle course and showing one
robot’s newly mastered skill — parkour. Parkour is a trend that challenges someone
to get from one point to another in a complex but fast way. It often involves difficult
jumps, turns, and flips across a variety of surfaces.
Atlas — Boston Dynamics’s humanoid robot — is five feet tall and 190 pounds and completed
the obstacle course at the company’s Waltham location perfectly. In the video, two Atlas
robots run on balance beams, jump on slanted platforms, and land impressive backflips.
But after the video was released — and quickly went viral — the company released behind
the scenes footage showing the hours of work it took to create the one minute video.
“The robots crash a lot — it’s not like the robot just magically deciding to do parkour,”
said Scott Kuindersma, leader of the Atlas Team, in a behind the scenes video. “It’s
kind of a choreographed routine much like a skateboard video or a parkour video, where
you know it’s an athlete that’s practiced these moves dozens or hundreds of times.”
The video showed bloopers of Atlas attempting to complete the parkour routine: Atlas can
be seen tripping over its own foot, failing a backflip landing, and even spewing smoke
while running. Kuindersma said these mistakes are what help the team expand their robot’s
abilities. “We’re exploring how to push it to its
limits, sometimes operating at those limits” Kuindersma said. “We learn a lot from that
in terms of how to build robots that can survive falling on their face and getting back up
and doing it again.” “We’re always expanding and pushing the
limits of Atlas’s capabilities and then, you know, hopefully by extension extending
the capabilities of the company as well at the same time,” Kuindersma said. “Parkour
is a useful organizing activity for our team because it highlights several challenges that
we believe to be important.” 1. What Does This Actually Do For Robotics?
That is a fair question. But the answer is remarkably simple. Because what it all boils
down to is that we've now proven definitively that we can get robots to do very complicated
movements in a way that feels downright human. We've gotten robots to walk for decades, but
to move them truly like a human and do complex tasks like dancing and parkour? That pushes
things to another level. So now that we can do these things with robots,
it's fair to say that Boston Dynamics will go and try to push it even further. Or, other
robotics companies will see what they can do and try to do their own thing to top it.
Each advancement pushes us further into the realm of fully functional and helpful robots.
And you know what that means...Skynet won't be far behind.
So what do you think? What do you think of this look at Boston Dynamics and their Atlas
robot, what it can do, and what this means for the human race as a whole? Does seeing
something like the Atlas freak you out? Or do you think that it's just the next step
in our advancement of technology as a whole? Are you impressed with how far Atlas has gone
so far? Let us know in the comments below, and we'll see you next time on the channel!