Boston Dynamics is very original introduced The new generation of the bipedal robot Atlas — all-electric (without any hydraulics), much faster, more flexible, more agile, and even more terrifying. Together with Robops Spot and a robot manipulator Stretch he will be engaged in solving «the most complex problems in industry».
On April 16, Boston Dynamics announced the end of the development of the hydraulic humanoid robot, famous for its jogging, dancing, parkour, performing various flips and others stunning acrobatic stunts. The video itself is quite nostalgic, as it contains footage of various versions of the Atlas robot being tested, including the earliest prototypes, and the unfortunate falls that spawned many memes. Nevertheless, in more than 10 years (the first screening took place back in 2013 with the support of DARPA).
The next day, on April 17, Boston Dynamics released another video announcing the all-new Atlas humanoid robot with a large round screen instead of a face. And in this video, the robot looks very convincing. Full specifications and a detailed description of all the new Atlas’ capabilities are not yet available. What is known is that the new generation relies exclusively on electronics — there is no room for any hydraulics in the new design, which significantly limited the previous generation. The demo video that introduces the new Atlas clearly demonstrates the flexibility of the new model, which is both impressive and frightening. As you can see, the new Atlas can fold (a kind of origami) and rotate its head and other parts of the body at least 180 degrees
A still from the Netflix series Lost in Space
In case you forgot, a few years ago Hyundai acquires Boston Dynamics for $1.1 billion, becoming the third owner of the famous robot developer founded in 1992 by MIT alumni. The new anthropomorphic car was developed jointly by Boston Dynamics and Hyundai — in the near future, the South Korean automaker’s plants will become a test site for the new Atlas, which is still is at an early stage of development. According to the plan, pilot tests of the Atlas at Hyundai’s production facility are scheduled to begin in early 2025. Boston Dynamics is not yet ready to discuss when Atlas will go on sale and how much the car will cost. Boston Dynamics is also not sure that the future production version of Atlas will be called Atlas and not something else. At the same time, the engineers are determined to create a robot capable of performing «boring, dirty, and dangerous» tasks. All that’s left for Ukrainians to do is to create their own humanoid robot and arm it with DragonFire laser weapon and send them to clear Ukrainian lands of Russian scum.