Parkour, dance and construction work from Boston Dynamics
Over the past week, the notorious company Boston Dynamics has shown a lot of interesting things. Let's take a quick look at the successes of our future hosts of helpers.
A week ago, a new video about the humanoid Atlas robot that learns parkour appeared:
The control software uses the entire body, including legs, arms and torso, to mobilize energy and strength for jumping through the log and jumping up the steps without disrupting the pace of movement. The atlas uses computer vision to find itself in relation to visible markers as it moves through the area.
If we analyze the previous video on the Atlas, the progress is very well seen. Less than three years ago, Atlas had just learned to walk independently in the forest and carry boxes in a warehouse. The video shows that walking on uneven terrain was not easy - the robot often stumbled and barely kept up. A year ago, a video appeared where Atlas jumps from his seat on the drawers and makes a back flip. In May of this year, the Atlas has already started jogging.It is seen that the robot can already run a little and jump with two legs off the ground over the log. In the last video, Atlas jumps over the log already on the run and at the same time does not reduce its speed. And after that at the same pace jumps onto the boxes of different heights.
Earlier, the president and one of the founders of the company Boston Dynamic said that the initial weight of the robot was reduced from 170 kilograms to 75 with the same power capacity. At the same time, the Atlas became much more agile and more capable. This was achieved through the use of 3D printing and modern design techniques. So, if you look at the development of the robot over the past year, the pace of progress is clearly impressive.
Current characteristics of the Atlas:
Also Boston Dynamics has posted a video where the four-legged Spot robot works on the construction site:
The company began field testing of the Spot robot for commercial use worldwide. The video shows how the Spot autonomously moves around the construction site with additional measuring instruments and conducts an inspection. Other equipment can also be attached to the robot for a variety of purposes, such as a laser range finder, a thermal imager,or a mini-gun to increase the productivity of workers .
Well, after hard work at a construction site, the robots also want to rest. On the last video, SpotMini is fully annealed by the song Uptown Funk:
Apparently, the robot is dancing not some kind of slow-motion with primitive body movements, but a very rhythmic dance in the style of Jazz Funk. SpotMini makes a well-coordinated variety of movements and at the end of the video effectively leaves Michael Jackson's moon walk. True, we should not forget that a simple flashing of a cute dancing robot can be turned into a likeness of a hunter from the fourth season of the Black Mirror.
Let me remind you that SpotMini is a lightweight and slightly reduced version of Spot. Below is a brief comparison of their characteristics.
Spot:
SpotMini:
Finally, I will add that Boston Dynamics, which has been developing robots for over 25 years, plans to start selling SpotMini next year. This announcement was made by the company at the TC Sessions Robotics May Conference.
The specific cost of the robot has not yet been reported, but the company noted that the latest version of SpotMini is 10 times cheaper than the previous one. We hope that in the near future with mass production, such robots will be available to the ordinary man in the street.
A week ago, a new video about the humanoid Atlas robot that learns parkour appeared:
The control software uses the entire body, including legs, arms and torso, to mobilize energy and strength for jumping through the log and jumping up the steps without disrupting the pace of movement. The atlas uses computer vision to find itself in relation to visible markers as it moves through the area.
If we analyze the previous video on the Atlas, the progress is very well seen. Less than three years ago, Atlas had just learned to walk independently in the forest and carry boxes in a warehouse. The video shows that walking on uneven terrain was not easy - the robot often stumbled and barely kept up. A year ago, a video appeared where Atlas jumps from his seat on the drawers and makes a back flip. In May of this year, the Atlas has already started jogging.It is seen that the robot can already run a little and jump with two legs off the ground over the log. In the last video, Atlas jumps over the log already on the run and at the same time does not reduce its speed. And after that at the same pace jumps onto the boxes of different heights.
Some other Atlas colleagues are not so good with stabilization.
Earlier, the president and one of the founders of the company Boston Dynamic said that the initial weight of the robot was reduced from 170 kilograms to 75 with the same power capacity. At the same time, the Atlas became much more agile and more capable. This was achieved through the use of 3D printing and modern design techniques. So, if you look at the development of the robot over the past year, the pace of progress is clearly impressive.
Current characteristics of the Atlas:
Also Boston Dynamics has posted a video where the four-legged Spot robot works on the construction site:
The company began field testing of the Spot robot for commercial use worldwide. The video shows how the Spot autonomously moves around the construction site with additional measuring instruments and conducts an inspection. Other equipment can also be attached to the robot for a variety of purposes, such as a laser range finder, a thermal imager,
Well, after hard work at a construction site, the robots also want to rest. On the last video, SpotMini is fully annealed by the song Uptown Funk:
Apparently, the robot is dancing not some kind of slow-motion with primitive body movements, but a very rhythmic dance in the style of Jazz Funk. SpotMini makes a well-coordinated variety of movements and at the end of the video effectively leaves Michael Jackson's moon walk. True, we should not forget that a simple flashing of a cute dancing robot can be turned into a likeness of a hunter from the fourth season of the Black Mirror.
Let me remind you that SpotMini is a lightweight and slightly reduced version of Spot. Below is a brief comparison of their characteristics.
Spot:
SpotMini:
Finally, I will add that Boston Dynamics, which has been developing robots for over 25 years, plans to start selling SpotMini next year. This announcement was made by the company at the TC Sessions Robotics May Conference.
The specific cost of the robot has not yet been reported, but the company noted that the latest version of SpotMini is 10 times cheaper than the previous one. We hope that in the near future with mass production, such robots will be available to the ordinary man in the street.