Humanity has taken yet another step towards its imminent demise as Boston Dynamics demonstrates its Bipedal Atlas robot’s newest capabilities on a faux construction site.
As if parkouring through an obstacle course wasn’t scary enough, this T-1000 in the making now has the power to grip objects thanks to its claw-style hands and complete wrist mobility.
In the video above posted by the Hyundai-owned lab titled ‘Atlas Gets A Grip,’ the rather unsettling humanoid bot is asked to retrieve the 20-pound tool bag a “construction worker” standing on top of multi-level scaffolding has seemingly forgotten.
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Atlas promptly analyses his surroundings and intuitively manipulates the physical environment, placing a plank of wood between blocks to form a path, before maneuvering up said scaffolding, tossing the tool bag up with ease, pushing a crate out of the way, and playfully executing an inverted 540-degree onto the ground.
“Parkour and dancing were interesting examples of pretty extreme locomotion, and now we’re trying to build upon that research to also do meaningful manipulation,” said Ben Stephens, Atlas Controls Lead.
“It’s important to us that the robot can perform these tasks with a certain amount of human speed. People are very good at these tasks, so that has required some pretty big upgrades to the control software.”
Stephens added: “Our hope is that, if we can build the foundational technology that allows us to easily create and adapt dynamic behaviours like these, we should be able to leverage it down the road to perform real, physically-demanding jobs with hustle.”
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“There are many pieces required to deliver a complete solution in a domain like manufacturing or construction – this video highlights a narrow slice of what we’re working on.”
Ben Stephens does, however, note that roboticists are still a “long way off” from creating humanoid robots capable of routinely tackling “dirty and dangerous jobs” in the real world.
“Manipulation is a broad category, and we still have a lot of work to do. But this gives a sneak peek at where the field is going. This is the future of robotics.”
For an inside look at how Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot pulled off its “construction” test, check out the video below.
