Boston Dynamics' new Atlas can breakdance, crawl and do a cartwheel
Less than a year ago, Boston Dynamics presented a new Atlas robot with electric drives. In the first videos, it demonstrated superhuman agility. It has now been further developed and can even turn a wheel.
Eleven months ago, Boston Dynamics retired its old "Atlas HD" robot and presented a new one. The new Atlas has electric drives instead of hydraulic motors and hoses. This makes it not only quieter, but also superhumanly manoeuvrable. Apart from that, it has mainly been shown in previous videos doing warehouse work. In other words, for employees with little action - picking up, carrying and repositioning articles.
However, this is now changing:
In the latest video, Atlas looks surprisingly agile. He can no longer just be seen walking, but also running, crawling and rolling around. Admittedly, he still needs to practise crawling around on the ground. But his breakdancing interludes are amazing. And when he does a cartwheel at the end, a murmur can be heard from the audience offstage. Perhaps this is the latest move he has learnt.
Compared to what Atlas will be doing in the near future, the movements shown seem too magical. His first assignment outside of the lab will be at Hyundai, the company's main shareholder and majority owner. There he will help in car factories. He has already demonstrated roughly how this will work in the lab.
It remains to be seen whether he will also carry out his future factory work in a hot dog costume.
Header image: Boston Dynamics
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Martin Jud
Senior Editor
martin.jud@digitecgalaxus.chI find my muse in everything. When I don’t, I draw inspiration from daydreaming. After all, if you dream, you don’t sleep through life.
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