Parkour robots: Boston Dynamics has outdone itself again

Coined in 1970 by Japanese robotics expert Masahiro Mori Uncanny Valley hypothesis It states that when an anthropomorphic replica of a person is very close to the appearance and behavior of a real human, This causes a rejection response among human observers.

El Uncanny Valley de Boston Dynamics

Experts, researchers, and scientists have been obsessed with conquering the Uncanny Valley for decades and creating an Android that doesn’t intimidate humans, and can look real as a person. concept we see Series like Westworld, as well as in the real world.

For a few years we got used to seeing Spot, one of the “creatures” of Boston Dynamics Robotics What is the Designed and animated like a dog Surprise for the smoothness of its movements and “smart” abilities such as analysis of environments. It has built-in algorithms to detect an object or person within one meter of their proximity to avoid collision.

But also, Boston Dynamics accustomed us to more ‘disturbing’ creations, so to speak, because over the years it has shown us its lead in terms of advanced and intelligent robotics, culminating this week with one of its most exciting.

automatic parkour

The Hyundai-owned company has shared a video in which humanoid robots successfully complete a parkour routine on an obstacle course for the first time. A pair of Atlas machines jump with holes, beams, and even coordinate a back somersault, all without missing a beat and display fluid animation keeping in mind the robotic age we are in.

According to the company, it took the two robots “months” of development to learn this routine. It was a useful test of the robots’ ability to balance behavior change and coordinate actions. Even more alarming is that their bots do not simply follow a programmed circuit of actions, but as in other recent tests, Atlas now uses visuals to adapt its movement to the path, Which also indicates that Learn how to interact with the environment in real time.

needs perfection

Of course, for now, fortunately, you don’t have to call Sarah Connor. The vault, in particular, It has a 50% failure rate. And there is still little chance of failure at every step. In fact, even the fist movement at the end didn’t go well according to Boston Dynamics. The company has not yet improved the movements that They are limited by the nature of robotics, such as the lack of a spine and the relatively weak joints of the arms.

Nowadays, Atlas is not a production bot like Spot. It is a research paradigm that aims to push the boundaries of robotics. However, Boston Dynamics envisions this practice of parkour leading to future assistive robots that can perform a variety of tasks with human-like prowess.

As we always say, let’s hope 100-year-old James Cameron never has to tell us one day: “I warned you 70 years ago!”