Boston Dynamics' new Atlas picks and packages a large number of automotive parts.
🌟 Just months after its debut, Boston Dynamics' next-generation Atlas electric robot is already hard at work. In a video released Wednesday, the company showed how Atlas autonomously picked up and placed individual parts between a series of storage bins.
🤖 “Atlas uses a machine learning (ML) vision model to detect and localize environmental elements and individual containers,” the company explained in a YouTube video. robot It employs a specialized gripping policy and continuously evaluates the state of the manipulated objects to perform the task.
🎯 "There are no prescribed or teleoperated movements; all movements are generated autonomously online," Boston Dynamics said, highlighting its advances compared to Tesla's recent Optimus bartender debacle, where Tesla's robot was controlled by a human operator while preparing drinks for event attendees.
💡 Atlas, on the other hand, "is able to detect and react to changes in the environment (e.g., elements mobiles) and action failures (such as failure to insert the cover, tripping, environmental collisions) using a combination of vision, force, and proprioceptive sensors.
🤖 The electric Atlas made its debut in April, marking the retirement of the older, hydraulically powered HD Atlas. The new Atlas is said to outperform the performance human in terms of strength and flexibility, something you can see in the video above as the robot moves nimbly between the containers. 🚀
Although it is not entirely clear whether any of the abilities Atlas displays in that video are the result of the recent collaboration between Boston Dynamics and the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), which aims to "accelerate the development of general-purpose humanoid robots." 🤝
Atlas is not the only one robot humanoid that is being put to work, especially in factories. In February 2024, Figure Robotics signed a deal with BMW to begin testing its humanoid robot models, the 01 and 02, at the automaker’s sprawling assembly plant in Spartanburg. 🚗 The robots are tasked with moving bins of panels and parts around the plant’s body department.
On the other hand, agility robotics has had its Digit robot carry boxes of Spanx products around GXO Logistics warehouses for almost a year. 📦 In addition, Agility Robotics has associated with Amazon to use its robots in the e-commerce giant's distribution centers, automatically moving empty containers from a series of shelves to a distant conveyor belt. 📦➡️🛒
Boston Dynamics has not yet announced when Atlas will officially join the workforce as a commercial product, as its robotics arm has already done. robotic quadruped Spot and Stretch. 🕒
Fountain: Boston Dynamics (YouTube)
Boston Dynamics' robot Atlas showing off its moves.
byu/huh1227 inAmazing
Ricky Hoyt I understand the skepticism – Boston Dynamics' robots do look almost unreal – but the vast majority of their videos are genuine demonstrations, not studio fakery. Boston Dynamics actually says outright in their FAQ that they “do not use computer-generated imagery or other editing tricks” in their videos, and that their robots are built for “real work in the real world”
bostondynamics.com
. In fact, they note thousands of these robots are deployed with customers, so these machines really exist and are being tested in real environments. Independent sources back this up: for example a Voice of America article described an Atlas humanoid being “bullied, teased and pushed around” by engineers in a snowfield test – the robot visibly recovers each time even though it's literally being shoved
voanews.com
. A film industry write-up also noted that although BD's footage looks “too smooth,” that's just because the robots are very well-built and clean – there's “no CG” involved, it's “actually real life, and the robots are clean and the movements are actually that smooth”
nofilmschool.com
. There is no credible evidence that Boston Dynamics ever uses green-screen effects for those impact tests. On the contrary, the company and fact-checkers have pointed out that some viral “Boston Dynamics” videos (like the CGI combat-robot clips) are not their work, and that real Boston Dynamics demos can be seen on their official channels
reuters.com
. In short, while the videos are professionally produced, they're based on real robots interacting with people and objects – every punch, kick or push you see is genuinely happening on camera, not faked. I hope this helps clarify things in a friendly way – Boston Dynamics' robots are very real, and their skills are well-documented, even if they sometimes look almost too good to be true.