Boston Dynamics Atlas Becoming a Ninja!

 Three years ago, Boston Dynamics released its first showcasing of the Atlas robot which absolutely stunned the world. It was the most advanced mobile humanoid robot so far, and this was when it was still stumbling around struggling to effectively walk. Over these past 3 years, the robot has been developed an incredible distance further into the future. It’s common knowledge at this point that many improvements and tests have led to Atlas being able to walk and even run seamlessly. However more recently Atlas has been taught an even more impressive trick. The bot can now perform a gymnastics routine, arguably much better than a human ever could! Some people have likened it to Atlas becoming a ninja.

Atlas Becoming a Ninja!

Recently Boston Dynamics, in current times already recognized as a leading robotics developer, released a video showing their Atlas robot performing moves such as cartwheels and a variety of flips. All of these moves would require a skilled professional gymnast if they were to be replicated effectively. The robot weighs around 80 kg which makes the fact it can do a perfect handstand all the more impressive when taken into consideration. The robot also displayed some impressive twists in the air as well as a flying jump kick.

So at this point, there is a robot out there that can currently perform incredible feats of athleticism in terms of gymnastic ability and on top of this has previously been able to perform backflips and stunning maneuvres through a number of obstacles. This all on top of its established ability to run and traverse different types of landscapes. Boston Dynamics have stated that they have employed the help of a new complex algorithm in order to assist Atlas while doing some of the harder to pull off moves. This algorithm instantly translates movement descriptions into actions and is, therefore, able to understand an order given to it and very quickly perform the action described by the controller.

Boston Dynamics had this to say about the new algorithm, “Atlas tracks the motions using a model predictive controller that smoothly blends from one maneuver to the next.” This new way of translating the description into action has meant Atlas’ new routines have been developed much faster and easier than previous routines and the future will likely only see faster and faster development.

These developments are impressive, whether you see the bot as being a creepy piece of technology or an engineering marvel, it’s impossible to deny the work that is being done by Boston Dynamics to improve the robotics world. It is worth noting that this is not the only robot being developed by Boston Dynamics at the moment. The company is also working on the SpotMini, Handle and Pick, all impressive in their own rights and innovative in their own ways. Somewhat notably they are also constructed and operated in a very similar way to the Atlas robot.