This is Atlas from Boston Dynamics. Atlas will haunt your dreams for the next decade or so, and then, if you're not careful, by 2035 it'll be chasing you down and tossing you onto the UN train system to rural Colorado.
Totally kidding about the dystopian future thing, though whenever I see one of these things I cannot help but go there.
Atlas is actually pretty cool. Here's Boston Dynamics with some info for ya:
Traditionally, we have focused on legged robots because we wanted to build robots that could balance and move dynamically — robots that could navigate unstructured, unknown, or antagonistic terrain with ease. The humanoid form factor is a useful design for robots working in a world designed for people …
We designed the electric version of Atlas to be stronger, more dexterous, and more agile. Atlas may resemble a human form factor, but we are equipping the robot to move in the most efficient way possible to complete a task, rather than being constrained by a human range of motion. Atlas will move in ways that exceed human capabilities. Combining decades of practical experience with first principles thinking, we are confident in our ability to deliver a robot uniquely capable of tackling dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks in real applications.
It's happening again, isn't it? You're going full iRobot.
Okay, maybe it's just me, but these humanoids are like 10 times as scary as those robot dogs.
More on Atlas:
This week we announced the retirement of our hydraulic Atlas and unveiled what comes next — a fully electric Atlas robot designed for real-world applications. The next generation of the Atlas program builds on decades of research and furthers our commitment to delivering the most capable, useful mobile robots solving the toughest challenges in industry today: with Spot [the robot dog], with Stretch, and now with Atlas …
We will be partnering with a small group of innovative customers, beginning with Hyundai, to test and iterate Atlas applications over the next few years. This is the first look at a real product, but it certainly isn't the last.
The electric version of Atlas will be stronger, with a broader range of motion than any of our previous generations. For example, our last generation hydraulic Atlas (HD Atlas) could already lift and maneuver a wide variety of heavy, irregular objects; we are continuing to build on those existing capabilities and are exploring several new gripper variations to meet a diverse set of expected manipulation needs in customer environments.
The robots are evolving faster than I'm comfortable with, y'all. I think I'mma have to go live in the Amazon or something, for real.
One last bit from Boston Dynamics and then I promise I'll let you go:
And we are not just delivering industry-leading hardware. Some of our most exciting progress over the past couple of years has been in software. In addition to our decades of expertise in simulation and model predictive control, we have equipped our robots with new AI and machine learning tools, like reinforcement learning and computer vision to ensure they can operate and adapt efficiently to complex real-world situations.
We also recently launched our Orbit™ software, which provides a centralized platform to manage your entire robot fleet, site maps, and digital transformation data. Today it's available for Spot, but Stretch and Atlas will also be integrated into this enterprise solution.
So cool, yet so scary at the same time.
Pretty soon science fiction's gonna have to drop the "fiction."
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