Boston Dynamics Explains How Our Robot Overlords Work
Boston Dynamics robots are literally improving by leaps and bounds – in parkour and on the dance floor.
The advances since PETMAN (Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin) was revealed 2009 are huge. The lab’s first bipedal model was developed for the US Army to test clothing made to protect soldiers from chemical warfare agents. It could walk on a treadmill with a stilted gait and climb up stairs while tethered. While looking back at it makes it seem like PETMAN was junk, it was cutting edge a mere twelve years ago.
Development has gone fast – PETMAN became Atlas and Atlas has has gone from this…
To this….
That point A to point B was done in a very short amount of time when you really think about it – it’s crazy how far they’ve come. Atlas has gone from stable walking and standing from its knees to box jumps and backflips to full out parkour with one-legged jumps in a little under 3 years.
In this behind the scenes the engineers talk about what it takes to create these robots and get them to dance and run through a parkour course without falling over. It takes a lot of work and know-how to get an end result that is accurate and even graceful – and makes folks worry about robots taking over the world as their jaws drop to the floor.
So… how long do you think we have till Arnold Schwarzenegger look-alike robots (that can dance) start showing up with anti-human agendas?
