Boston Dynamics' terrifying robots can now run, jump and climb
Boston Dynamics' terrifying robots can now run, jump and
climb
By Chris Ciaccia May 11, 2018
Boston Dynamics, the company known for its
'nightmare-inducing' backflipping robots, has unveiled two new videos that show
them autonomously navigating through different terrains, including an office
and a lab, and jogging in a grass field.
Hopefully these violent delights don't have violent ends.
The clips released Thursday detail the progress that
Atlas, a humanoid robot, and SpotMini, a doglike robot, have made. SpotMini,
for example, is using cameras to identify and move past obstacles, such as
office furniture.
"During the autonomous run, SpotMini uses data from
the cameras to localize itself in the map and to detect and avoid
obstacles," Boston Dynamics said in the video description. "Once the
operator presses 'GO' at the beginning of the video, the robot is on its
own."
Meanwhile, Atlas' jump over the downed tree trunk isn't
elegant in the way an Olympic hurdler is, but it more than gets the job done.
If that isn't shocking enough, SpotMini continues its venture outside near
grills, walking along a concrete path. That probably isn't what most people
envision when they think of a fun-filled BBQ with friends and the family dog.
The videos, which have racked up a combined 1 million
views, are the latest to show off these robots, who have terrified plenty of
people. One of them is tech exec Elon Musk, who has repeatedly warned about the
perils of artificial intelligence.
In November, when Boston Dynamics showed off Atlas doing
backflips, he said that was just the beginning.
"This is nothing," Musk tweeted. "In a few
years, that bot will move so fast you’ll need a strobe light to see it. Sweet
dreams…"
Even Boston Dynamics' founder, Marc Raibert, has
acknowledged that its robots can cause fear. In February 2017, he showed off
the wheeled version of one of its robots and described it as
"nightmare-inducing."
"This is the debut presentation of what I think will
be a nightmare-inducing robot if you're anything like me," Raibert was
quoted as saying.
BOSTON DYNAMICS' LATEST ROBOT CAN OPEN DOORS
Boston Dynamics, which was sold from Google to Japanese
tech conglomerate SoftBank for an undisclosed sum last year, has not revealed
what it eventually plans to do with its robots.
On its website, the company, which got its start at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says it is "changing your idea of
what robots can do" and prides itself "in building machines that both
break boundaries and work in the real world."
When "Westworld" becomes a reality (or is it
already?) and the robot uprising finally occurs, at least we'll know (probably)
where it started.
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