Boston Dynamics introduced the next-generation, fully electric Atlas humanoid robot
After recently announcing the official retirement of its hydraulic humanoid robot Atlas, Boston Dynamics has announced a fully electric, new-generation Atlas. Initial real-world Atlas testing will happen in partnership with Hyundai before the robot is available to a select group of early customers.
Boston Dynamics has officially retired the hydraulic Atlas (HD Atlas) to make way for a new generation of fully electric Atlas humanoid robots. The new Atlas' journey will begin with Hyundai's manufacturing facilities as the robot's first testing ground. Subsequently, the model will be made available to a small selection of customers, enabling further testing and iteration of Atlas' applications. The new-generation Atlas is stronger and has a broader range of motion than its previous iterations. And even if it is in its earliest stages, Boston Dynamics already has ambitious plans for the revamped all-electric Atlas: the company is looking into alternative gripper designs to build on and expand Atlas' object manipulation capabilities.
As with Boston Dynamics' other robots, the company's expertise on simulation and model predictive control will be key to Atlas' success, as will be the newer AI and machine learning features like reinforcement learning and computer vision. The latter will enable Atlas robots to learn from and adapt to diverse real-world settings and use cases. Customer-end management will be made possible with the future integration of Atlas to Boston Dynamics' software platform Orbit. These software innovations, together with a form factor that allows Atlas to move in ways that are beyond human, will guarantee that Atlas will become the most efficient way to tackle "dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks in real applications."
