Geekery: Boston Dynamics Has Improved Our Robot Overlords
Prepare yourself for the eventual take over by studying these videos of bipedal Atlas do parkour, and SpotMini shaking its robot booty to Mark Ronson.
Every few months Boston Dynamics shows off what they’ve been working on, and the strides they’ve made in the last year are really impressive. Atlas has gone from stable walking and standing from its knees to box jumps and back flips to full out parkour with one legged jumps in a little under 3 years.
SpotMini has gotten more compact, more agile, quieter, and autonomous since the group revealed the the quadruped in 2016. It’s an evolution of systems they started working on over 10 years ago with Big Dog. The group is developing the smaller size for use in industrial sites, construction, and homes.
They’re working really hard to make it cute. This week they are attempting to endear us to the robot by teaching it to do the running man. I’m glad they gave it its head/neck back, but sad that the googly eyes from the first test video have not returned. I vote for making it look like a dog size giraffe when it comes to market; maybe sell skins/costumes to dress them up in.
