Boston Dynamics Video Shows Humanoid Robot's New Skills

A newly released video from Boston Dynamics shows the organization’s humanoid robot Atlas displaying a routine that challenges its “locomotion and sensing capabilities,” according to a statement from the company.

In the video, a man simulating work on a scaffold says he forgot his tools again, prompting Atlas to look around. The robot then builds a path to the scaffold with pieces of wood and tosses a tool bag to the man. The automaton then performs an impressive flip off the platform. “Such a showoff,” the person quips at the end.

According to the Boston Dynamics statement, the video, called “Atlas Gets a Grip,” represents a natural progression of ongoing research by the robot’s team.

“We’re layering on new capabilities,” said robotics researcher Ben Stephens.

“Parkour and dancing were interesting examples of pretty extreme locomotion, and now we’re trying to build upon that research to also do meaningful manipulation. It’s important to us that the robot can perform these tasks with a certain amount of human speed. People are very good at these tasks, so that has required some pretty big upgrades to the control software.”

According to Boston Dynamics, Atlas is a research platform pushing the forefront of what’s possible. Credit: Boston Dynamics via Storyful

Video transcript

- I forgot my tools again

Such a showoff.