Suzanne Humphries
It’s been fun to watch Boston Dynamics’ myriad robots complete amazing feats like dancing or gymnastics over the past few years. But now, the company’s Atlas robots have improved their skills so much they look like they are ready to run through an American Ninja Warrior course.
The robot’s team spent months working hard to program the bots to successfully complete the obstacle course, and the final result is nothing short of impressive. In the video, we can see two robots performing tasks like leaping gaps, vaulting over a beam, jumping, and even doing amazing backflips.
The day this video was shot was also the same day the robots ran the course together. While there’s a lot to account for—and, of course, a lot that can go wrong—the robotics team was so excited that both of the bots completed the course successfully they had to restrain themselves from cheering before the cameras finished recording.
While the bots do a great job running through the course, it’s pretty clear that there is still plenty of work that needs to be done here, however. Boston Dynamics’ team notes that not every run was perfect and that sometimes one of the robots “loses its balance and falls backward.”
“There are a lot of pretty exciting behaviors here, and some of them are not totally reliable yet,” said Ben Stephens, Atlas controls lead. “Every behavior here has a small chance of failure. It’s almost 90 seconds of continuous jumping, jogging, turning, vaulting, and flipping, so those probabilities add up.”
Those probabilities and various movements will need to be finessed and refined, which will take time, so don’t worry about them running you down on the street or winning American Ninja Warrior any time soon.
via CNET
