We mere humans are destined, one day, to be no more. For our robot friends however, death comes in the form of retirement, and Boston Dynamics has announced that itshas finally been put out to greener pastures, or in this case, probably boxed up in a crate at the back of the lab.
Boston Dynamics first revealed its Atlas humanoid robot back in 2013, created as a contest entry for the US Department of Defence . Standing at 6 feet two inches tall and weighing in at 330 pounds, this hydraulically powered machine kept us entertained over the years with its various improvements and iterations, eventually ending up as not only anThere's no need for a robot fetching your tools on a construction site to finish off with a twist-flip, but by golly we all liked to see it.
This is undoubtedly very impressive, and Boston Dynamics says that this sort of flexibility allows Atlas to move in"ways that exceed human capabilities". Not only that, butthat allows it to adapt to new environments on the fly, the ability to dynamically manipulate objects using both its"hands", and real-time perception features to see its surroundings.
Still, it's a massively impressive display of the new robot's capabilities, although whether it's as adept at gymnastics as its predecessor remains to be seen. I can't help but feel that Boston Dynamics knows what it's doing with this latest display, as leaning in on the slightly horrifying aspects of its new creation is certain to create a buzz.