Boston Dynamics has dropped a surprise video of its new electric Atlas robot completing a complex factory task. The 2-minute clip showcases the robot’s autonomous perception, full-body motion, and manipulation capabilities in a practical setting.
In the video, Atlas is seen moving engine covers between supplier containers and a mobile sequencing dolly using a machine learning vision model to detect and localize the environment fixtures and individual bins. The robot uses a specialized grasping policy to achieve the task without any prescribed or teleoperated movements.
Kuindersma, senior director of Robotics Research at Boston Dynamics, confirmed that this is a task that humans currently perform. Atlas has access to CAD models and learned keypoint prediction models to build a map of the workcell and detect changes in the environment.
The robot’s torso can rotate relative to its joints, allowing it to adapt to different situations. Kuindersma also mentioned that the team still finds Atlas’s motions surprising and delightful, even after months of development.
While the video showcases impressive capabilities, it also highlights potential issues, such as the robot getting caught on fabric bins and requiring a recovery mechanism. Despite these challenges, Boston Dynamics is committed to expanding the scope and duration of tasks like this one.
Source: https://spectrum.ieee.org/boston-dynamics-new-atlas