Tomorrow, the robots? According to Elon Musk, the Tesla company will soon equip itself with a 6-foot android capable of fixing bolts on cars. With the entrepreneurial media, you have to be wary of announcement effects and wait and see. Show question, it is another American company which dazzled the web with the exploits in video of the robot Atlas. Boston Dynamics has released footage where its bipedal machine (in fact, there are two of them), “parkour”, that is, acrobatic movement, in a warehouse, with an astounding address – see the tweet below. An almost human behavior which reveals what will be, tomorrow, the “cobots” – contraction of “robot” and “collaborative” -, machines with the behavior so fluid that they would interact in good cooperation with humans, as well as the explain to Science and the Future Alex Caldas, teacher-researcher specializing in robotics at the ESME Sudria engineering school.
“The characteristics of a ‘flexible’ robot”
Sciences and the Future. For an average spectator, with this latest video from Boston Dynamics, it’s the “Whaouh!” insured. But for a robotics expert?
Alex Caldas: I too say well done! Boston Dynamics got us used to awesome videos, but the excitement is intact. Their robots deploy an increasingly fluid gesture that is close to that of a human being. But the balance of a robot, its walk, these are delicate subjects of research.
Parkour is the perfect sandbox for the Atlas team to experiment with new behaviors. Through jumps, balance beams, and vaults, we push Atlas to its limits to discover the next generation of mobility, perception, and athletic intelligence. https://t.co/xZRNVnhrkc pic.twitter.com/E0ssh45ZCi
— Boston Dynamics (@BostonDynamics) August 17, 2021
What is difficult about ensuring stability for a robot?
First, there is a question of mechanics. The Boston Dynamics Atlas appears to exhibit elements of “soft” mechanics. We are indeed talking about “flexible robots” as opposed to those currently found, for example, in a car factory. Such an industrial device is capable of great precision: it can accurately weld a sheet, screw a bolt … On the other hand, these are heavy machines, which do not work well with humans.
That is to say ?
Industrial robots are rigid robots that often move at high speed. The result ? Like streaking the air with a metal bar! It is therefore very dangerous for an operator and that is why these machines are in cages. On the other hand, flexible robots are machines whose behavior is more like that of a spring: they have a certain elasticity. In general, these robots also operate at slower speeds. The elasticity and the reduced speed allow them to be more secure: thus it is possible to collaborate with an operator. Elasticity can be obtained by specific mechanical materials (silicone, polymers, etc.) or by an adapted mechanical transmission (low ratio gear) or by the robot control.
“The trembling of the hand of Atlas, so human”
What about the algorithms that control such a robot?
This question of control is the other big problem when you want to build a stable robot. Stability is indeed due to algorithms: they calculate what movement the robot will make, what force it must apply to its legs to stay upright. Looking at this video, we can say that Boston Dynamics has designed algorithms – which it does not give in detail! – very advanced and robust, because they are able to adapt to the irregularities of the ground, to its imperfections, so that the Atlas maintains its balance and its good functioning.
To come back to the “Whaouh” effect, it culminates with the Atlas somersault at the end of the video. What, for you, is the most amazing about this sequence.
Not the somersault: we had already seen it in previous Boston Dynamics videos. Paradoxically, it is a fleeting movement, almost an imperfection, which amazed me: the tremor of the “hand” at the 36th second. The robot leans on it to jump over a beam, it is an amazing demonstration of coordination between the upper and lower limbs. And the tremor is proof that the robot was almost unbalanced but managed to reestablish its position. It is, disturbingly, very human.
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