After announcing the retirement of its hydraulic robot Atlas The day after Boston Dynamics unveiled a new all-electricHumanoid RobotThe new generation of Atlas robots has a wider range of motion than its predecessor. The new generation of Atlas robots has a wider range of motion than its predecessor and is capable of performing more tasks.
Boston Dynamics says that with the new version of the Atlas robot, they hope to prove that the humanoid form does not limit the robot's bipedal mobility. The new version of the robot has redesigned joints that allow it to pivot and is said to be capable of "tedious, dirty and dangerous tasks".
"We've designed a more powerful, dexterous, and agile all-electric version of the Atlas robot," Boston Dynamics said in a press release, "Atlas may have a humanoid form, but our goal is not to limit it to human movement patterns, but to enable it to accomplish tasks in the most efficient Atlas will be able to perform actions beyond human capabilities."
A promotional video from Boston Dynamics showing off a new version of the robot's capabilities is both cool and a little creepy. The video begins with Atlas lying on the ground like a corpse, then quickly folds its legs behind its body and stands up in a bizarre manner reminiscent of a sci-fi horror movie. Its curved head has a glowing ring, reminiscent of a Pixar lamp, and then the Atlas robot swivels around at the waist and walks straight toward the camera in a motion that feels slightly uncomfortable.
The new Atlas is also more human-like in appearance. Like Tesla's Optimus robot, it has longer limbs, a straighter back, and a head that can be rotated as needed. There are no wires visible on the robot, and its "face" has a built-in ring light. It's a huge improvement over its predecessor, which featured a number of new artificial intelligence and machine learning tools from Boston Dynamics.
The company said they will continue to develop the features already implemented in the previous generation of the hydraulic version of the Atlas robot, such as gripping and manipulating objects, while also exploring "a variety of new gripper designs" to enable the robot to adapt to a variety of different industry environments.
Boston Dynamics said they will be testing the new version of the Atlas robot with a small number of customers, the first being Hyundai, over the next few years. Other competitors' products, such as robots from Figure and Apptronik, are also being tested on production lines at BMW and Mercedes-Benz, respectively.