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Boston Dynamics' Next-Gen ATLAS Sheds the Tether (roboticstrends.com)
Boston Dynamics' ATLAS robot has been featured here a few times before. An anonymous reader points out that the company has just posted a video of the newest version of the ATLAS, "and it's absolutely incredible."
The video shows ATLAS walk, open a door, maintain its balance while it walks through snow and semi-rough terrain, squat and pick up 10-pound boxes and much more. And it does everything without a tether. The new version is electrically powered and hydraulically actuated. It uses sensors in its body and legs to balance and LIDAR and stereo sensors in its head to avoid obstacles, assess the terrain and help with navigation. This version of Atlas is about 5' 9" tall (about a head shorter than the DRC Atlas) and weighs 180 lbs.
This is pretty amazing...
I watched the video with my wife and she was mad at someone being mean to the robot.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Five minutes, I believe, until they manage to install an S2 engine into Unit-01.
My favorite part was when he deliberately knocked the robot on to it's face. It said good things about it's durability, flexibility, and power density that it was able get back on it's feet. The center of gravity may be behind it to make this easier, which makes you wonder if it can do the same thing if it falls on it's back like a turtle. I would consider "rolling over" to get back up to be a fair tactic there.
It was nice seeing the robot recover from the moving box teasing it. The 2d barcodes made the panic bar door opening less impressive. It looks like the box movement would be improved with better end-effectors for hands, although that is balancing act because many of the high dof end effectors woundn't survive a +200lbs robot landing on them from ~2-3ft drop.
The walk through the snow was very fun to watch. The recoveries from stumbles were pretty solid. I'm looking forward to impovements in energy density and processing speed that allow them to get this thing to run over the same terrain faster than humans. If they can produce a kamikaze bipedal robot for $100,000 that can run over terrain with obstacles and tripping hazards: that would be very useful in an urban combat setting.
Spinning Lidar still represent a significant percentage of that expense, but the servo motors are the real cost driving PITA. Unless you can 3d print or mass produce nice harmonic drive servos for a decent price, this is the primary reason shooting one of these guys full of holes costs $$$. Fortunately, the NVIDIA Tegra X1 has virtually solved the processing side of the equation, although not necessarily within the environmental ratings the DoD wants in its toys.
Yeah, it's funny because I actually felt a bit sorry for the robot. Like it was being picked on.
I also felt this strange sense that it was going to up and whack that guy in the head.
If the robots ever attain sentience and rise, this guy is going to get a beating!
I dunno. Did you see how it went storming off at the end? You could practically hear it saying, "Screw you, Bill! I just wanted to pick up the box! If that's how I'm going to be treated, F this job!"
I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
"Being dicks to robots... for science!"
All through history, luddites have been scared that technological advances would take away jobs and push people into poverty, and it has never happened. In fact, the opposite has occurred. Productivity has skyrocketed, allowing people to create more and more goods even as the cost of subsistence items in real money has plummeted. And as old jobs become fewer or unnecessary, people move into new jobs that didn't exist before. Buggy whip makers become solar panel installers, chimney sweeps become IT tech support workers, etc. Only the most insecure among us fear technological progress.
The thing is, those pushes and shoves actually help the robot adapt and adjust to them in the future.
That's what I tell my son when I push him down the stairs. After that first broken collarbone he won't even get on the stairs if someone is within six feet of him.