This Week in Engineering

Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Tackles Parkour and the Tesla Android

Aug 31, 2021 · 4 min · 11.0 MB
0:00-4:23

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Advanced robot maker Boston Dynamics is famous for four and two-legged robots that mimic the movement of dogs and people respectively. The bipedal humanoid robot, Atlas is a YouTube sensation with the capability of very sophisticated motion that mimics advanced human movements such as dancing. In its latest development, the company puts Atlas through a parkour course, demonstrating how the sensor suite and algorithms adapt to the local environment.

Elon Musk’s much-anticipated AI day was held August 19, and two key announcements were noteworthy. One is the development of a scalable and modular processor array for the company’s Dojo supercomputer program, but the other is perhaps more significant: a humanlike robot program. Musk announced that the firm is hiring talent for the robotics program immediately, and expects to produce a human -sized, bipedal and useful machine the prototype ready in 2022. It’s a very ambitious timeline and much depends on the success of Dojo.

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