TECHNOLOGY – Running, jumping and even doing back flips, Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot Atlas shows off his newfound skills in a video posted Tuesday, August 17, where he is seen doing parkour, almost to perfection.
As you can see in our video at the top of the article, the humanoid Atlas easily connects the most impressive figures. Jumps, backflips and even coordinate with a second robot. According to the American firm, it can now develop the same flexibility as the average human adult, the potential applications would now be practically unlimited.
The bipedal robot is 1.52 m tall and weighs 86 kg. It uses battery-powered hydraulic and electric motors to perform the various movements and has 3 on-board computers.
If in this video, posted on the Boston Dynamics youtube account, Atlas seems to complete the course to perfection, such a feat requires months of preparation and training.
Years of research to push your limits
“It can be frustrating at times. Robots crash a lot. It’s not the robot who magically decides to do parkour. “, Details Benjamin Stephens, Atlas team leader.” It’s a kind of choreographed routine a bit like a skateboard or parkour video. where it is an athlete who has practiced these movements dozens or hundreds of times even to reach that high level. So we are doing the same here with Atlas. ”
The robot is designed to be used as a research and development tool. “We learn a lot about how to build robots that can survive falling face down and get up and start again and we also learn a lot about behavior, control”, explains the team leader.
Boston Dynamics says Atlas has evolved tremendously over the past decade. He is now able to adapt movements already present in his repertoire according to what his cameras see. Thus, it does not need to be reprogrammed for each movement.
The results of these tests will help Boston Dynamics design a skill foundation for the next generation of robots.
See also on The Huffpost: This robot collects small garbage to clean beaches
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