Boston Dynamics Opens Doors to Reveal Remarkable Acrobatic Robots
Boston Dynamics grants rare access to its Massachusetts workshop to showcase advanced robots like Atlas that balance and move like living creatures. The machines use onboard computers and sensors to perform incredible acrobatic feats.
Boston Dynamics invites the public inside its secretive Massachusetts headquarters to reveal the impressive robots it builds behind closed doors. The workshop feels like a futuristic factory where machines trot, dance, and whirl through corridors while human engineers barely blink an eye at the extraordinary sights.
The star of the facility is Atlas, a five-foot-tall, 175-pound robot that runs, leaps, and spins like an automated acrobat. While a human technician uses a remote control to steer the machine, Atlas handles all of its own balance and leg placement autonomously using three onboard computers, a gyroscope, and various sensors.
Founder Marc Raibert demonstrates how Atlas maintains its footing even when pushed forcefully from different directions. The robot constantly adjusts the forces applied by its legs to stay upright, functioning just like a human trying to maintain balance in a physically demanding situation.