﻿LEAKED: NEW FEMALE ROBOT | Weekly Boston Dynamics News
Not many robotics companies can boast legions of fans online, but not many robotics companies make
robots quite like Boston Dynamics. Each time the firm shares new footage of its machines,
they cause a great sensation. Therefore, let’s take a look at the latest robot
advancements from Boston Dynamics! * Boston Dynamics’ Robots in Superbowl
New England may not have been in the big game this year, but Boston was represented on Super Bowl
Sunday- in the commercials. A game day ad features a new brew from Sam Adams, the Boston Dynamics
robots and, of course, "Your Cousin From Boston." In a 60-second version of the advertisement,
"Spot" the robot dog grabs and chugs a beer before partying with his other robotic pals.
"Yes, those are actual robots drinking and dancing inside the world-famous Boston Dynamics
innovation lab (no CGI or special effects)," a press release from Sam Adams explained.
The ad was broadcasted in 13 markets, and streamed nationally on Yahoo and Verizon.
* Robots 'Parkour' In Latest Video You've seen the Boston Dynamics robots
dance - now watch them parkour. In a new video, the humanoid Atlas robots
jump up on boxes, run across a balance beam and land synchronized backflips like Olympians. "A
robot's ability to complete a backflip may never prove useful in a commercial setting,"
Boston Dynamics writes in a blog post. "But it doesn't take a great deal of imagination or
sector-specific knowledge to see why it would be helpful for Atlas to be able to perform the same
range of movements and physical tasks as humans." The YouTube clip of the robots demonstrating their
athletics has racked up more than 11 million views. "This is impressive and frightening
at the same time," one viewer commented. * '60 Minutes' Gets Rare Look Inside Workshop
Boston Dynamics is a cutting-edge robotics company that's spent decades behind closed
doors making robots that move in ways we've only seen in science fiction films.
They occasionally release videos on YouTube of their life-like machines spinning,
somersaulting or sprinting, which are greeted with fascination
and fear. Many have been trying, without any luck, to get into Boston Dynamics' workshop for years,
and a little time back they finally agreed to let the show ‘60 Minutes’ in. After working out strict
COVID protocols, the team went to Massachusetts to see how they make robots do the unimaginable.
From the outside, Boston Dynamics headquarters looks pretty normal.
Inside, however. it's anything but. If Willy Wonka made robots, his workshop might look something
like this. There are robots in corridors, offices and kennels. They trot and dance and whirl
and the 200-or-so human roboticists, who build and often break them, barely
bat an eye. Let’s see it for ourselves! * Boston Dynamics Condemns 'Spot's Rampage'
Boston Dynamics isn't happy about a planned "provocative" art project
aiming to show a different side of "Spot," the Waltham-based company's robot dog that
has become a viral video star. "Spot's Rampage" was a virtual event organized by startup MSCHF.
Internet users were to be able to control Spot, mounted with a .68cal paintball gun,
and watch via livestream as it destroys an art gallery. The event refers to Spot as a
"remote controlled war dog," that could "become fixtures of militaries and militarized police."
"We talked with Boston Dynamics and they HATED this idea," MSCHF wrote on the event website.
"They said they would give us another TWO Spots for FREE if we took the gun off."
Boston Dynamics tweeted out a statement denouncing the event. "To be clear, we condemn the portrayal
of our technology in any way that promotes violence, harm, or intimidation," the company
said. "Our mission is to create and deliver surprisingly capable robots that inspire,
delight & positively impact society." Boston Dynamics said that its products must not be
used to "harm or intimidate people or animals," and any violations will void the warranty on the
$75,000 robot dog. "Provocative art can help push useful dialogue about the role of technology in
our daily lives," Boston Dynamics said. "This art, however, fundamentally misrepresents Spot and how
it is being used to benefit our daily lives." * Boston Dynamics' Robot Can Jump Rope
A robot dog can learn new tricks - and even jump rope. Just take a look at "Spot." Boston
Dynamics built a new extendable arm for the four-legged robot. It can drag objects
as heavy as a cinder block, lift things, turn cranks and more. A video shared by the company
on YouTube shows Spot's arm in action. The Waltham company announced two other
new features as well - Spot Enterprise and Scout. Spot Enterprise is a new self-charging version of
the robot, which can perform longer inspections and then return to its dock to charge itself.
The company said it upgraded hardware for Spot Enterprise, so that it can work alone for longer,
have extended WiFi and download large data sets more quickly.
Scout is the new web-based software for Spot, and it's designed for hazardous tasks in workplaces
such as nuclear plants and offshore oil fields without putting human workers at risk.
Workers can control Spot remotely and view the workplace via robot camera. They can tap on the
surroundings to tell Spot where to sit down. And on the off chance that Spot falls over, they can
press a button to bring it upright again. * Spot Can Remotely Measure Patients' Vital Signs
Testing a patient for Covid-19 can be an unnerving experience for health care workers,
but researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brigham and Women's Hospital
in Boston are hoping to use robots to change that. Operating robots with a handheld device,
medical workers may soon be able to talk with patients about their symptoms
while measuring vitals -- all from another room. The researchers have been using a robot on healthy
volunteers and are making plans to use it to test people who show Covid-19 symptoms in a
hospital setting, the university said in a news release. "In robotics, one of our goals is to use
automation and robotic technology to remove people from dangerous jobs," MIT postdoc Henwei Huang
said, according to the release. "We thought it should be possible for us to use a robot to remove
the health care worker from the risk of directly exposing themselves to the patient." A tablet
mounted to the "head" of Boston Dynamics' dog-like robot, Spot, allows communication with patients.
The robot also is equipped with an infrared camera, along with three monochrome cameras that
are capable of filtering different wavelengths of light, the release states. These four cameras can
measure skin temperature, breathing rate, pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation
from as far as 6 1/2 feet (2 meters) away. * Robots Replace Fans At Japanese Baseball Game
With their stadium devoid of fans due to coronavirus restrictions, Japanese baseball
team Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks came up with an imaginative replacement: dancing robots.
Before their most recent Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) game against Rakuten Eagles,
over 20 robots danced to the team's fight song on a podium in the otherwise empty stand.
Two different robots, including SoftBank's humaniod robot 'Pepper'
and Boston Dynamics’ four-legged Spot, stamped and shimmied in a choreographed dance that is
usually performed by the Hawks' fans before games in the 40,000 capacity Fukuoka Dome.
Some of the robots wore Hawks caps and waved flags supporting the team. Fans on social
media had mixed reactions. "I think this is like a dystopia," wrote one Twitter user. Another called
the performance "insanely beautiful." Boosted by the supportive robots, the Hawks won 4-3 as they
look to defend their 2019 NPB title although the NPB season began three months late on due
to the coronavirus pandemic. * Spotmini Robots Pull a Truck
With recent advancements in artificial intelligence and automation,
robots can now perform some eerily human-like tasks, as well as some that people like us could
never dream of doing. In this particular case, we're talking about another of Boston Dynamics’
most recent video footage showcasing one of its latest creation, SpotMini.
To prove how capable its dog-like and headless robots are, the company rounded up about 10 of
them, daisy chained them together, then proceeded to pull a large heavy-duty box truck clear across
a vacant parking lot. SpotMini is essentially a shrunken-down version of the engineering firm’s
main project, BigDog, which started life as a robotic pack mule prototype for transporting goods
to military groups deployed in areas where more traditional transport vehicles can’t go.
That’s all for this video, folks! See you another time!