Boston Dynamics has unveiled an electric version of its Atlas humanoid robot. In partnership with Hyundai, the new Atlas will be tested in real-world applications over the next few years.
Boston Dynamics, a pioneer in the development of humanoid and other robots, this week unveiled the successor to its hydraulic Atlas robot: an all-electric version designed for real-world applications.
The electric Atlas is said to be stronger and have a greater range of motion than its predecessors. Boston Dynamics is also exploring several new gripper variants to meet expected manipulation needs in customer environments.
With the new Atlas and the Spot and Stretch robots already in commercial use, the company expects to be able to offer solutions to industrial challenges. Similar to the Stretch robot, Boston Dynamics plans to work with a small group of innovative customers to test and develop Atlas applications over the next few years. The first partner will be automaker Hyundai, which is developing the next generation of manufacturing capabilities in the automotive industry.
Electric Atlas to get better with AI features
Atlas will also be equipped with the Orbit software recently introduced for Spot. Orbit serves as a central platform for managing robot fleets, location maps, and other data for digital transformation. Recently, the company has also been enhancing its robots with modern AI methods such as reinforcement learning and computer vision to enable them to adapt to complex real-world situations. These capabilities are expected to improve the new Atlas as well.
Boston Dynamics sees the humanoid form factor as a useful design for robots working in a world designed for humans. However, Atlas is designed to move in the most efficient way to complete a task, rather than being limited by a human's range of motion. As a result, the robot is designed to outperform human capabilities.
The new model puts the company in direct competition with other providers of humanoid robots, such as Elon Musk's Tesla Optimus Bot.