That first video of the bot standing from the floor and turning towards the camera one joint at a time does something strange to the uncanny valley horror movie part of my brain.
They have out-sci-fied any sci-fi robots I have ever seen.
An electric new era for Atlas
221–230 of 443 posts
Re: An electric new era for Atlas
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
The ultimate goal is to produce general-purpose robots. If we want robots that can do everything a human can, then legs are definitely useful. One simple example: getting in and out of a car. Another thing to consider is that a legged robot can tilt itself for balance while carrying heavy objects. To carry a similar weight with a wheeled robot you'll need a much wider wheel base. And then of course, if you want to bu…
Worth noting that none of this points exclusively to bipedalism. It's possible bipedalism is one of the more difficult ways to solve these problems.
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Re: An electric new era for Atlas
#223The success of old Atlas was partly due to the compactness and high power of hydraulic actuators. There’s a lot of actuators to pack into a humanoid robot and it takes a lot of power to do backflips. I am betting that this one is less powerful, no backflip.
Their press release actually says electric atlas is more powerful. Though I wonder if that's higher peak torque, and not so much explosive power required for jumps. A commercial robot doesn't need to do parkour.
Re: An electric new era for Atlas
#224That first video of the bot standing from the floor and turning towards the camera one joint at a time does something strange to the uncanny valley horror movie part of my brain.
It's as if Pixar's Luxo was all grown up.
Re: An electric new era for Atlas
#225A hill I'm willing to die on: bipedal robots are an evolutionary path that machines don't need to go down, we have lovely bearings and wheels that work perfectly with electric motors. Yes obviously there are limitations i.e. stairs and uneven terrain but there are wheeled/tracked solutions for those too Most of these robots will be used in factories that have very nice flat concrete floors
If we’re using NN’s to get fine motor skills right, like final steps in an assembly line, the simplest and most abundant source of training data are humans. :shrug:
Sure, but you don't even need a lower body for that, and if you do want to let the robot move around than a stable wheeled base that doesn't negatively impact the fine-motor skills needed when it is in position seems preferable.
Re: An electric new era for Atlas
#226Two words: Nightmare fuel.
How long before we have the YouTube remixes of this video with horror film music and a jump scare in the end blackness after the Boston Dynamics logo fades away? Is feels like they almost designed this video with that eventuality in mind. Like that wanted a second wave of organic 3rd party viral advertising.
As someone did with one of the previous ones?
Re: An electric new era for Atlas
#227A hill I'm willing to die on: bipedal robots are an evolutionary path that machines don't need to go down, we have lovely bearings and wheels that work perfectly with electric motors. Yes obviously there are limitations i.e. stairs and uneven terrain but there are wheeled/tracked solutions for those too Most of these robots will be used in factories that have very nice flat concrete floors
I strongly disagree. One of my pet peeves is the idea of asking the world to accommodate a situation rather than build solutions that adapt to the world. Big example: the best we have for mobility nowadays is a wheelchair of some sort. That requires building special ramps and elevators everywhere. If we had a four legged chair that could climb stairs, etc, like what BD is doing, it could transport people ANYWHERE. yo…
Segway make wheelchairs that are far more versatile than traditional ones. I'm not sure of the capabilities of their current commercial models, but years ago they had demo videos of them driving up steps and a scissor-like design whereby they could lift the occupant up to reach things.
Re: An electric new era for Atlas
#228Seems like they just posted a video about the new Atlas https://youtu.be/29ECwExc-_M
... a rendered video, i.e. it doesn't exist.
This doesn't look like a rendered video to me at all. I'm not enough of an expert to point to specific reasons, but the lighting, reflections, shadows, etc just seem 100% real to me. I feel it in my gut.
You apparently disagree? Was there something in the video you think marks it out as CGI? Or do we just have differing gut instincts about it?
Re: An electric new era for Atlas
#229I was excited when I saw the title. Now I'm scared due to this hardware and being aware of LLM possibilities and mixing it.
I'm excited at the yet unexplored military applications.
You're excited... at the yet unexplored military applications... of humanity finding ever more efficient ways of killing each other?
FML, that's dark.
Re: An electric new era for Atlas
#230I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
Progress in robotics is beginning to look non-linear and it will have only positive impact on the world.
Skynet won’t be humanoid terminators. Or even drones. The real threat of AI is if/when it will be applied to the field of virology.