Boston Dynamics Retires Its Legendary Humanoid Robot

In a brand fresh video posted today, Boston Dynamics is sending off its hydraulic Atlas humanoid robot. “For nearly a decade,” the video description reads, “Atlas has sparked our creativeness, inspired the next generations of roboticists, and leapt over technical boundaries within the sphere. Now it’s time for our hydraulic Atlas robot to kick abet and aloof down.”

Hydraulic Atlas has unquestionably earned some rest; Boston Dynamics has been fully merciless with its humanoid learn program. This isn’t a criticism—every now and then being merciless to your hardware is very critical to push the envelope of what’s most likely. And as spectators, we fair correct fair correct accumulate to accumulate pleasure from it, and this highlight reel entails unseen footage of Atlas doing things successfully alongside with unseen footage of Atlas doing things no longer so successfully. Which, let’s be correct, is what we’re all the truth is right here for.

There’s so noteworthy extra to the historical past of Atlas than this video reveals. Atlas traces its historical past abet to a US Navy project known as PETMAN (Protection Ensemble Take a look at Mannequin), which we first wrote about in 2009, so formula abet that we needed to dig up our have article on the Wayback Machine. As contributor Mikell Taylor wrote abet then:

PETMAN is designed to take a look at the suits ragged by troopers to guard themselves in opposition to chemical war brokers. It must be in a position to appealing fair correct love a soldier—walking, working, bending, reaching, army crawling—to take a look at the suit’s durability in a tubby differ of flow. To the truth is simulate folks as precisely as most likely, PETMAN might presumably even be ready to “sweat”.

Relative to the lots of humanoid robots accessible on the time (basically the most notorious of which, by some distance, changed into as soon as Honda’s ASIMO), PETMAN’s flow and balance were very, very impressive. Also impressive changed into as soon as the presumably accidental formula whereby this PETMAN video synced up with the tune video to Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees. Anyway, DARPA changed into as soon as suitably impressed by all this impressiveness, and selected Boston Dynamics to make the humanoid robot to be ragged for the DARPA Robotics Impart. That robot changed into as soon as unveiled ten years within the past.

The DRC featured a[easyshoppingforacollectivenounfor[stilllookingforacollectivenounforhumanoid robots]of Atlases, and it looked love Boston Dynamics changed into as soon as hooked on the form ingredient, because no longer as much as a year after the DRC Finals the firm supplied the next technology of Atlas, which might presumably well also accumulate some precious things love scoot containers around. Every six months or so, Boston Dynamics put out a brand fresh Atlas video, with the robot working or jumping or dancing or doing parkour, leveraging its noteworthy hydraulics to galvanize us every single time. There changed into as soon as the truth is nothing love hydraulic Atlas in phrases of dynamic performance, and also you would perhaps presumably well well also argue that there easy isn’t. Right here’s a robot that can be missed.

The real rendering of Atlas, adopted by four generations of the robot.Boston Dynamics/IEEE Spectrum

Now, while you’re wondering why Boston Dynamics is announcing “it’s time for our hydraulic Atlas robot to kick abet and aloof down,” in preference to fair correct “our Atlas robot,” and while you’re additionally wondering why the video description ends with “take care of finish a be conscious abet at all the pieces we’ve carried out with the Atlas platform “to this level,” successfully, I will’t enable you to. Some folks might presumably well strive and plan some inferences and conclusions from that very explicit and deliberate language, however I might presumably well well unquestionably no longer be unquestionably one of them, because I’m successfully identified for never speculating about one thing else.

I might presumably well well, nonetheless, show cowl just a few things which were obvious for some time now. Particularly, that:

• Boston Dynamics has been focusing pretty explicitly on commercialization over the past several years
• Advanced hydraulic robots are usually no longer product friendly because (among lots of things) they’ve an inclination to head away puddles of hydraulic fluid on the carpet
• Boston Dynamics has been very a hit with Put of living as a productized electrical platform in step with earlier hydraulic learn platforms
• Fully electrical industrial humanoids the truth is appears to be like to be where robotics is at apt now

There’s nothing the least bit fresh in any of this; basically the most straightforward additional piece of information now we hang is that the hydraulic Atlas is, as of today, retiring. And I’m fair correct going to head away things there.