For his last tour, Atlas, the headless humanoid robot, makes parkour



[ad_1]

You've seen him jump on boxes, run across terrain and run backflips with the precision of a professional gymnast.

Perhaps it seems natural that Atlas – the humanoid robot and YouTube sensation, created and regularly updated on video by the Boston Dynamics technology company – begins to master another sophisticated form of human movement: the parkour.

In the company's last 29-second teaser, Atlas jumps from one leg to the other on a log before jumping sharply into wooden crates higher and higher, his mechanical limbs fitting into the air to maintain the balance in a seemingly human way.

"The control software uses the whole body, including the legs, arms and torso, to gather the energy and strength needed to jump over the trunk and climb the steps without breaking the rhythm," he said. the company said in a statement posted on YouTube. "Atlas uses computer vision to be in relation to the markers visible in the approach, in order to hit the ground accurately."

Boston Dynamics is renowned for creating robots whose movements mimic humans and animals with a precision that many find surprising, even disconcerting. The Japanese company Softbank bought the company at Alphabet more than a year ago. In recent years, she has produced four-legged robots with names such as Spot, Wildcat and BigDog, capable of opening doors, carrying heavy loads, and operating nearly 20 miles away. ;hour.

Earlier this year, Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert told a German audience that his team was testing the company's awkward four-legged robot, SpotMini, for use in many industries, including security, delivery , construction and home assistance. The company says the 66-pound machine is 2 feet 9 inches tall and is the company's quietest robot. It runs on electricity, has 17 seals and can last 90 minutes with a single charge.

SpotMini will be available next year, said Raibert at the CeBIT computer show in Hannover, Germany. "We built 10 by hand; we are building 100 with manufacturers by the end of this year. And by mid-2019, we will start producing about 1,000 a year. "

At 4 feet 9 inches and 165 pounds, Atlas – which is powered by battery and guided by lidar and stereoscopic vision – is compact and durable, capable of carrying nearly 25 pounds. According to Boston Dynamics, the robot can manipulate objects in its environment, cross rough terrain, maintain its balance when it is pushed and stand up when it is rocked.

In May, Boston Dynamics released a 34-second clip on YouTube showing Atlas jogging in a grassy residential area. The video, which captures the distinctive sound created by robot movements, similar to a Xerox machine, generated nearly 8 million page views.

In one day, the latest Atlas video has already generated nearly 1.5 million page views and thousands of comments. These comments were a typical mix of encouragement and horror, with many references to Skynet and "The Terminator".

"So it's possible that some FedEx distribution employees are robotic and that I can be rude in my lifetime," wrote a YouTube observer. "Excellent!"

"The day of judgment is approaching," wrote another.

"Still want to give up your second amendment rights?", Added another viewer.

The pessimistic reactions, which seemed to dominate the comment section, may have been summed up better by a single line in the ever flamboyant Daily Mail that covered Atlas's latest physical feat.

"If you thought you could run away from the new generation of terrifying robots," writes the newspaper, "bad news".

[ad_2]
Source link