Robotics developer Boston Dynamics has become famous for viral videos of its prototype machines, from a robot dog that can open doors to a humanoid that can dance and do parkour.
The latest video of the company’s Atlas humanoid is likely less eye-catching than previous demos, but it’s arguably much more important for the future of robots and their interactions with humans.
The Massachusetts company filmed the robot maneuvering around a demonstration construction site, stepping and jumping across widely different distances and, most crucially, picking up and even throwing various objects. The video showcased mastery of much trickier and more valuable tasks for your standard robot: successfully identifying, grasping, and carrying objects of various sizes and consistencies.
In the video, Atlas places a wooden board into position, then grabs a work bag and carries it up scaffolding before tossing it to a “worker” — completing an ambitious, somersaulting dismount for full effect.
Boston Dynamics said the demo combined the locomotion capabilities from previous Atlas videos with the company’s work on manipulation: relatively routine tasks for humans that are deceptively complex problems for roboticists.
Atlas and its descendants likely won’t ever be asked to perform this kind of routine on an actual job site — company engineers instead called it a “fun demonstration” and stressed that it’s just a narrow slice of the many pieces of technology that will need to be put together over a long period of time before robots can tackle construction or manufacturing work.
But Ben Stephens, the Atlas controls lead for Boston Dynamics, also characterized the demo as “a sneak peek at where the field is going.”
