Boston Dynamics revealed its human-esq robot Atlas is retiring after a little more than a decade with the company, with no details on a successor yet released.
The Hyundai-owned company revealed Atlas’ plans to step down in a video released online, noting the robot had proved capable of performing a wide variety of tasks ranging from gymnastic feats to industrial work.
Atlas is shown falling over, being pushed around and even suffering injuries in the form of broken hydraulic hoses.
The footage demonstrates how Boston Dynamics employed the robot as a development tool, a factor it referred to in the video synopsis when it stated Atlas “inspired the next generations of roboticists and leapt over technical barriers in the field”.
Atlas was developed for the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2013, becoming a core of a robotics competition focused on developing relevant hard and software, sensors and control interfaces.
In a blog, Boston Dynamics highlighted Atlas today employs model predictive control, a technique which describes “how the robot’s actions will affect its state” and enables the company to predict how that condition will change “over a short period of time”.
It explained the model is a blessing and curse: “a simple model will miss important details about the robot’s dynamics, but a complex model might require too much computation to run in real time”. Any inaccuracies “will lead to incorrect predictions and actions, which for Atlas usually means falling over”.
Various media noted Boston Dynamics does not have a commercial outlet for Atlas in the way its other robotic products have, though some highlighted its hydraulic trailblazer was largely now outdated and hinted the company may have a fresh model in the works.
Comments