If robotic dogs opening doors didn’t scare you enough about the impending robotic apocalypse on the horizon, or if robots that pick up your trash don’t shame you enough, now there’s a robot that can actually do parkour.
And not in a wonky, slow-motion way that we have seen other robots do before. This one scales boxes, jumps over logs and much more.
The robot, named Atlas, is one of the creations from Boston Dynamics that recently showed off Spot, its robot that can open doors.
Atlas’ control system coordinates arm, torso and leg motion to achieve whole-body mobile manipulation. Boston Dynamics used 3D printing to save weight and space on Atlas' hardware, resulting in a compact robot with a high strength-to-weight ratio. The robot also includes stereo vision, range sensing and other sensors to manipulate objects in its environment and to travel on rough terrain.
In the video, Atlas climbs over logs while in a sprint and then quickly climbs up a number of boxes with ease. Who needs humans to do athletic events when we now have robots that can do them just as well and never get tired?