Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Humanoid Robot Can Now Spin 360° in The Air + Official Spot Launch Trailer

Boston Dynamics is hard at work making their robots do things that no robots have ever done before. Here are two videos the company has just released: One showing their Atlas humanoid robot doing some neat parkour tricks, and the second is the official launch trailer for their doglike Spot.

Atlas uses its whole body — legs, arms, torso — to perform a sequence of dynamic maneuvers that form a gymnastic routine. We created the maneuvers using new techniques that streamline the development process. First, an optimization algorithm transforms high-level descriptions of each maneuver into dynamically-feasible reference motions. Then Atlas tracks the motions using a model predictive controller that smoothly blends from one maneuver to the next. Using this approach, we developed the routine significantly faster than previous Atlas routines, with a performance success rate of about 80%.

Spot is an agile mobile robot that you can customize for a wide range of applications. The base platform provides rough-terrain mobility, 360 degree obstacle avoidance, and various levels of navigation, remote control and autonomy. You can customize Spot by adding specialized sensors, software and other payloads. Early customers are already testing Spot to monitor construction sites, provide remote inspection at gas, oil and power installations, and in public safety. Spot is in mass production and currently shipping to select early adopters. Find out more about using Spot in your application by visiting us at www.BostonDynamics.com/Spot.