24 ms·

An electric new era for Atlas

473 points by colinramsay 2y ago

zzzeek 2y ago
The circular screen is supposed to display the words "PLEASE DISPLAY YOUR PAPERWORK, CITIZEN", otherwise what's the point really
- zzzeek 2y ago
  holy crap you people are HUMORLESS. so sad.
- squarefoot 2y ago
  ...a robot make up artist with built in mirror?
koko-blat 2y ago
But Amnon has a better solution... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJTf4JhGSsI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJTf4JhGSsI
temporarely 2y ago
r/legendary/creepy
blackhawkC17 2y ago
Figure, a new startup, is working on a similar humanoid robot. They just raised $675 million from Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft [1]. Not sure about their chances of succeeding. On the other hand, as a non-American, I admire that the USA is seemingly the only place where people get funding for wonky ideas that sometimes become very successful. 1- https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/29/robot-startup-figure-valued-at-2point6-billion-by-bezos-amazon-nvidia.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/29/robot-startup-figure-valued-...
- echelon 2y ago
  It's not the only one, but it's the one that's raised the most capital. This "robots + AI" space is heating up just as fast as LLMs, and every country seems to have a dozen startups in the ring. Here is just a sample: https://www.1x.tech/androids/neo https://www.1x.tech/androids/neo https://rainbow-robotics.com/en_main?_l=en https://rainbow-robotics.com/en_main?_l=en https://sanctuary.ai/ https://sanctuary.ai/ https://www.tesla.com/AI https://www.tesla.com/AI https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CToL2qkCd8g https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CToL2qkCd8g (funny) https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1b10p2i/chinese_robots_faster_than_optimus/ https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1b10p2i/chines... https://www.engadget.com/menteebot-is-a-human-sized-ai-robot-that-you-command-with-natural-language-110052927.html https://www.engadget.com/menteebot-is-a-human-sized-ai-robot... https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/15jywv2/apparently_chinese_robotics_company_working_on/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/15jyw... (NSFW) ... Everyone is working on this.
  - modeless 2y ago
    A while ago I made a blog post collecting 20+ efforts for humanoid robots specifically. There has been a real explosion in humanoid announcements in the past few months and it's hard to keep up even if you follow the news. https://james.darpinian.com/blog/you-havent-seen-these-real-humanoid-robot-demos https://james.darpinian.com/blog/you-havent-seen-these-real-... Edit: Haha, case in point. I opened Twitter and sure enough there's a new announcement of a humanoid robot today, from Intel/Mobileye: https://twitter.com/AmnonShashua/status/1780611499133685889 https://twitter.com/AmnonShashua/status/1780611499133685889
- neom 2y ago
  imho, Nobody does capitalism better than the Americans the South Koreans, and the Japanese(I guess because of the lack of natural resource in their geographies for KR/JP?). I've been privileged enough to build in those countries for an extended period of time, and work with builders in many other countries. I strongly believe nobody bruit forces ideas into existence better than them, they make the resources happen in the right way. Even if you're not much into capitalism, how deeply it's been embraced by the culture still fascinating, especially as a Canadian where I believe we do capitalism particularly poorly.
  - rmbyrro 2y ago
    > Nobody does capitalism better than the Americans the South Koreans, and the Japanese(I guess because of the lack of natural resource in their geographies for KR/JP?) China is not far behind, despite an authoritarian govt. KR & JP, as well as CH, clearly learned well from Americans.
  - fsloth 2y ago
    I agree, the skill inherent apparently in the US culture of using capital to scale things up compared to the rest of the west feels unappreciated. You give a US capitalist money, labour pool, and a goal, they will organize them to a system to deliver miracles. This is not obviously how things go! It is an underappreciated virtue. I wonder if there is research on the topic - I mean Adam Smith is translated to all languages so it’s not about the ideas or non-tacit knowledge. Must be something institutional or otherwise cultural.
    - rrrrrrrrrrrryan 2y ago
      It's just a that competition is a core cultural value in these nations, and that competitive spirit lands itself really well to capitalism.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - FpUser 2y ago
    I live in Canada and have found many Canadians lacking drive, curiosity and will. Also far from being straight in business to the point they feel like politicians. In average dealing with USians was much more to my liking (I am originally from the USSR). There are of course exceptions on either side.
moi2388 2y ago
Well, that article didn’t say anything at all really, now did it?
fforflo 2y ago
What's the best way/resource to get an honest/pragmatic view of where things stand with the "robots market" in general and how much and fast things are really progressing? I remember seeing prototypes from Toshiba when I was 10 (20 years ago), and every few months, there is a company releasing an "amazing video." its mother company then spins it off like there's no adequate progress, and so on.
- DoctorDabadedoo 2y ago
  Talk to people in the area, I guess we do miss honest and straight forward source of info for the general public. In general robotics flies under the radar because it's rare to see a unicorn or anything really flashy and there is a big gap between big aspirations and fake demos and real world applications with polished use cases and diligent design, processes, etc. source: I'm a skeptic roboticist working in the industry.
  - fforflo 2y ago
    I have zero ties to the industry. Am I right to assume there's a lot of DoD-driven echo chamber? Material being produced for the big clients and contracts ?
    - DoctorDabadedoo 2y ago
      I'm not based in the US to give you an accurate picture on this scene, most of it happens behind the curtains. What I can say it's there has been always a movement to weaponize robotics in some way and this has gained interest from the market in the past few years specially with the Ukrainian and Palestinian wars. It takes time and a lot of money to polish an application like this, if there isn't a behemoth funding research and PD on this it will take a long time before it takes off, and I hope it never does.
- EcommerceFlow 2y ago
  I'd say Tesla is the leader or could quickly become the leader given their intense investment in FSD. If a car software can "understand the physical world" using vision Ai / neural nets, it shouldn't be out of the question to reoptimize that software for the rest of the "physical world". Especially when you need a whole lot less safety standards compared to a 3,000lb 70MPH vehicle. Hell, the Optimus engineers said they were considering doing the first demo on a road since the software was so similar lol. With FSD 12.3.3 released, it's clear FSD is getting smarter and smarter. How many of those releases left until people trust Optimus to fold their laundry? 1.0 Optimius will still be pretty dumb, but could still be worth the price (especially with continuous software upgrades!)
charlesabarnes 2y ago
Seems like they just posted a video about the new Atlas https://youtu.be/29ECwExc-_M https://youtu.be/29ECwExc-_M
- Klaster_1 2y ago
  Wow, the ways All New Atlas can move in are really something else. Really channels that Star Wars battle droid vibes.
  - bamboozled 2y ago
    I actually find it less creepy than the original atlas for some reason ha. It looks like there is a chance this one will be able to unpack the dishwasher, until it decides it doesn't want that job anymore :)
    - pdpi 2y ago
      The original was at the edge of the uncanney valley in the way it moved. This one seems a lot less human-like in its movement so doesn't conjure up those feelings for me.
  - WilTimSon 2y ago
    I found it creepy at first, then I saw a comment saying it looks like the lamp from the Pixar intro and now I can’t take it seriously. Beautiful movement, though. I hope one day they’ll be simple and powerful enough to replace people in high-risk jobs, where you could even just control one remotely and perform tasks that way.
    - huytersd 2y ago
      Years of sci-fi made the “wait till the light on its head turns red” comment resonate more for me.
  - HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
    It reminds me of these battle bots built out of servo motors, which is basically what this is in terms of construction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ekK2QgflM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ekK2QgflM Maybe we need life-size robot battles? Would love to see son-of-Atlas suplexing TeslaBot like that mini white one does!
xnx 2y ago
"Legendary"? Definitely a cool novelty/tech-demo/research-platform, but nothing about it seems "legendary".
DonnyV 2y ago
I still can't believe Google sold this company. What an absolute horrible decision.
dkobia 2y ago
If all Boston Dynamics did was make Youtube videos, they'd have a pretty good business.
- fforflo 2y ago
  Do they list Sora as a potential competitor?
- simplicio 2y ago
  Is that their business? They've been around for 30+ years and I don't think they've ever successfully commercialized a product. So far as I can tell, they just hop from DARPA grant to DARPA grant and make cool videos of the results. I don't have any particular problem with that, but its a little weird? I figured they were a more traditional industrial robotics company that just did the humanoid robots as a side line for publicity, but googling, I guess that's not the case.
  - colingoodman 2y ago
    They've sold some of their robots (particularly the dog) to PDs and manufacturing companies. Not sure if they've ever been profitable, though.
    - yuck39 2y ago
      Personal data point, I see their dogs at defense-adjacent trade shows all the time.
  - InSteady 2y ago
    They have been on the bleeding edge of autonomous robotics R&D for a very long time now. If they were more focused on commercialization for the past 20 years then they wouldn't have pushed the tech forward as far and as fast as they have. The whole point of the article is speculating that they are specifically retiring their hydraulic robot because it was never going to be commercially viable. Which makes it look like they are finally ready to pivot from pure R&D to commercial production. Thus they want fully electronic robots instead of hydraulics that are messy and require more (almost constant?) maintenance. I'm not an engineering guy but I assume the hydraulics were more useful for pushing the boundaries of possible motion with such a heavy, robust, and versatile design. Now that the AI systems controlling vision, motion, proprioception/spatial awareness, etc are more fully developed, they can create more specialized and scaled down versions of the robot for specific applications that are lighter and don't require hydraulics to perform their tasks reliably? Just guessing here, am happy to be corrected or given more a nuanced take.
ragebol 2y ago
That is a very good-looking robot and no doubt very capable. But did I see correctly that it can just turn it legs 180 degrees to move backwards, as well as it's head? Talk about super-human abilities! Bit creepy though
- neom 2y ago
  Very cool actuation indeed. I'm not in robotics, so this could be fan fiction, but: I guess they have figured out the physics engines for these things meaningfully, so I guess innovating on hardware can be the next focus? I feel like a lot of the early bots were just to understand the real word implications of the physics they simulated, now that they understand robot physics extremely well and seems to have built a whole OS around that, I suspect they can plug it into any hardware that they want? They have it to the point where they might be somewhat decoupled? If anyone who works in robotics sees this and can say if that is correct thinking or not, I'd be very curious.
  - ragebol 2y ago
    I suspect that they have something like that indeed. In robotics, there is the concept of a Whole-body-controller, and I think BD has one of these for their robots, which can be calibrated for each individual robot. And the tools & skills to make such a controller for new robot variants fairly quick. Such WBC then makes sure that the robot reaches both it's task goals (eg. grab something, with 1, 2 arms), as well as it's (dynamic) stability goals so it doesn't fall over. They are also capable of choreographing the robot pretty accurately as we say in earlier videos. But what is most very impressive to me is the robot using the mass and momentum of things it grabs to keep stable or move itself. In one of the videos it grabs a big piece of wood and uses it to turn itself around while jumping. Amazing! Controlling that in terms of dynamics is... wow!
    - neom 2y ago
      That's what it seems like to me too, and let me tell you, i am right there with you on that last point ragebol, that stuff I also find really really amazing, because it's so thoughtful I guess, and I wish my brain was good enough to hack physics like that. People get real hyped up about GenAI etc, but I'm like a kid waiting for christmas when it comes to robotics, i sense their industry in a positive feedback loop and going to get better and better quicker and quicker. Cool time to be alive for sure. :)
beezlebroxxxxxx 2y ago
Are there any Boston Dynamic robots currently in use? Specifically the biped ones, but I'm also interested in the quadrupeds, which they seemed to be pushing for military/search and rescue/packhorse uses.
- defrost 2y ago
  The quadrupeds saw use in Singapore during COVID (2020) to remind people about social distancing, today (2024) they're being used in car manfacture plants to "fetch" for other fixed robots. https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/boston-dynamics-robot-dogs-have-an-impressive-new-job- https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/boston-dynamics-robot-d... so they do have non-military applications.
- r0ckarong 2y ago
  New York and Los Angeles at least use them (Spot) already. Nestle and AB InBev in their facilities apparently. Paris uses it for Metro inspections. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFRcle4Szo4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFRcle4Szo4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Y52zjZYXo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Y52zjZYXo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9pZQ29RSz4I https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9pZQ29RSz4I https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XPOpnJSldUg https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XPOpnJSldUg https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p535RRR5MqM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p535RRR5MqM
  - nebula8804 2y ago
    SpaceX has one for what I imagine is PR purposes. [1]:https://youtu.be/aajbFO7xwBM?t=36 https://youtu.be/aajbFO7xwBM?t=36
    - chasd00 2y ago
      They use flying drones all the time, you can see them flying around in the Starbase live streams. I can't think of anything off the top of my head that a flying drone can't do but spot would be able to do at Starbase. Unless Spot can crawl into a pipe or tank maybe.
K5EiS 2y ago
They also posted a farewell to the previous robot yesterday https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8 Looking forward to see some more robot parkour/dance
- tivert 2y ago
  > They also posted a farewell to the previous robot yesterday > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8 I wasn't expecting to see a robot bleed, several times.
  - stanski 2y ago
    It's also cool to see it tuck in its appendages when it falls; to prevent that.
- jader201 2y ago
  HN thread: Boston Dynamics Retires Its Legendary Humanoid Robot https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40063766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40063766
prime09 2y ago
They found the bottom of the uncanny valley and started digging.
- Anotheroneagain 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - cooper_ganglia 2y ago
    Weird comment.
  - dcuthbertson 2y ago
    That was a rather insensitive comment. People are not disposable and people with schizophrenia need help.
    - Anotheroneagain 2y ago
      Misplaced empathy. It isn't some disabled people like on a wheelchair, but people suffering from brain damage that makes them terrorize their surroundings. You can hardly find a better solution than to make places unbearable to them by intentionally triggering their hallucinatons.
  - Cheyana 2y ago
    From someone with two family members suffering from schizophrenia, fuck you.
    - Anotheroneagain 2y ago
      That's misplaced empathy, and I don't think you'd speak that way if you actually experienced it, and the way they terrorize everyone.
- unsupp0rted 2y ago
  That was my first thought. Shock value PR stunt? Moving the Overton window for the general public’s aversion to what comes next?
3dsnano 2y ago
feels incredibly eery. it doesn't move like how my brain expects a humanoid being to move. reminds me of how the EMMI's move in Metroid Dread... especially when it goes from the prone position to standing. maybe its my DNA or i've played enough video games to realize that this thing is probably not my friend and will not end well. uncanny valley vibes.
micromacrofoot 2y ago
oh wow, this looks much more like a commercial product — quite uncanny I bet it talks
- solardev 2y ago
  I bet it cackles quietly while plotting your demise. All while it's looking the other way.
jack_riminton 2y ago
A 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
- dcchambers 2y ago
  If we ever see a world where robots need to be useful outside of a factory with perfectly flat concrete floors, then yes - there needs to be continued evolution in traversal over uneven ground and around unanticipated objects. Bipedal locomotion is useful for this (although not the only solution). Right now the hardest jobs to replace will be those of plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc where they need to operate with fine motor skills in unique and challenging locations - no two ever being the same.
  - chasd00 2y ago
    i think search and rescue is a great application of humanoid robotics, you need something very versatile and a human body is not a bad model for a universal terrain form factor.
- snek_case 2y ago
  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 build robots that can be useful inside a house, then they need to be able to cope with stairs. There's also construction... At some point, you don't have elevators... Or just circulating between buildings out on the street where the pavement isn't great.
  - polygamous_bat 2y ago
michelb 2y ago
Fantastic movement, not bound to human anatomy.
- sebastianconcpt 2y ago
  That uncanny valley effect tho..
dcchambers 2y ago
Lmao of course they had to make him get up off the ground in the creepiest way possible.
- dcuthbertson 2y ago
  Oh the horrors! Please use "it", not "him"! These machines are creepy enough w/o being anthropomorphized more than they already are! 8-)
  - HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
    This guy seems less creepy than his predecessor. He looks more like a hobby servo-motor robot. I liked the aesthetics of hydraulic Atlas better - somehow fitted well with the character they gave him in all the choreographed demos. I can't see them really being creepy unless/until we get to "uncanny valley" territory with realistic faces and expressions.
  - huytersd 2y ago
    I don’t find him creepy at all. The movements are smooth and pleasing.
    - dylan604 2y ago
      I'm not sure that when the robot overlords look through their training data if they will decide that "huytersd" was being serious of facetious. This may not have the effect you were looking for.
- ackbar03 2y ago
  Then it trots off looking for john connor cause the terminator films were in the training dataset
- Narretz 2y ago
  They did stress that one advantage of electric motors over hydraulics is better mobility. On the other hand, the motors probably do not yet have the power to make jumps and the like.
seatac76 2y ago
Looks like they were able to miniaturize a lot of the components. Looks much cleaner and the dexterity looks much improved too.
Mizza 2y ago
Jesus fuck. I guess the war machine is hungry again so they've fired all the people who made the cute dancing videos and brought in the nightmare engineers. I'm thinking more and more that that "Terminator" was the most accurate of all the sci-fi dystopias.
- JKCalhoun 2y ago
  Or perhaps "A.I.".
- micromacrofoot 2y ago
  the war machine is never not hungry, Boston Dynamics has received some funding from the Department of Defense and has sold robots to various police departments and other government agencies
matthewfelgate 2y ago
1. Amazing technical ability. 2. Feels scary, both the beyond-human movement, and the design of the 'face'.
systemz 2y ago
I was excited when I saw the title. Now I'm scared due to this hardware and being aware of LLM possibilities and mixing it.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
  I'm excited at the yet unexplored military applications.
  - Karellen 2y ago
    You're excited... at the yet unexplored military applications... of humanity finding ever more efficient ways of killing each other? FML, that's dark.
    - 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
      War is already dark and more precision makes it less dark. Winning faster saves lives.
      - Karellen 2y ago
        Making war feel less risky to politicians who want to wage it for domestic jingoistic bullshit reasons[0] makes war more likely to happen in the first place, which costs lives. Also, bold of you to assume you're going to be winning. Does the excitement about this new tech hold up if you consider it from the perspective that it's going to be used against you and your troops? [0] as opposed to actual defence against invasion - despite the euphemism commonly used by western governments for their military political departments. And what %age of military actions in the last 50 years that your country was involved in count as one, or the other?
        2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
        You're making so many assumptions that you're attacking a scarecrow. I think that more precision (which may make war "easier") makes up for it in total lives spared. How are militarized robots worse than a JDAM? If I didn't believe that it is more merciful on the whole then I wouldn't take this position. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-in-wars-project-mars?time=1935..latest https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-in-wars-project-ma...
doodda 2y ago
I don't know enough about robotics to judge BD's technology or innovations. What I can be sure of is that they have an incredible marketing function.
- I_ 2y ago
  It's hard to judge from any video like this because you can't be sure what's pre-programmed. Their hardware is second to none.
alfor 2y ago
Funny, just after the all electric Optimus. For sure they have been working on this for a long time. I predict that they will also move toward neural nets for all the vision, control and understanding of the world (like Tesla)
- hiddencost 2y ago
  "move towards neural nets ... like Tesla" You sound confused.
  - alfor 2y ago
    why? FSD is based on neural net so is Optimus vision
    - itsoktocry 2y ago
      >FSD is based on neural net so is Optimus vision Do you think Tesla invented neural nets or something?
      - DiggyJohnson 2y ago
        Where on Earth did they imply that?
        yareal 2y ago
        I think the parent and gp poster are more like, "Tesla is an odd reference. Not wrong per se, just odd." It's like saying, "they are building a search engine, just like Netflix!" Sure, Netflix does build search, but like... are they the canonical example for the domain?
  - DiggyJohnson 2y ago
    What do you mean? This sounds like a low-effort, hostile reply unless you provide more reasoning for your dismissal. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
nbzso 2y ago
So it begins. John, where are you?
tivert 2y ago
The VCs said "don't be afraid," AI wasn't going to be Skynet. Rather it would a tool that would bring about a utopia of human flourishing. But it was always going to be Skynet. I bet the next version will have teeth.
- ok_dad 2y ago
  AI and robots like this may be how the wealthy will replace the problematic plebeians.
- drusepth 2y ago
  To be fair, teeth would help it pre-chew food for humans.
assimpleaspossi 2y ago
I'm thinking the humanoid approach to robotics is now a gimmick. In most--if not all--cases, a robot in human form is not necessary at all if the approach is to get work done.
- pixl97 2y ago
  It turns out the humanoid shape when making a general purpose robot is useful because humans have designed all the things around us, for humans.
  - itslennysfault 2y ago
    That's kinda a weird conclusion to reach. They discontinued this (old, hydraulic) humanoid robot to focus on their new (fully electric) humanoid robot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ECwExc-_M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ECwExc-_M
    - pixl97 2y ago
      I'm assuming you didn't read the parent comment to mine saying "humanoid robots are dumb", so I'm not sure what you're trying to say.
      - itslennysfault 2y ago
        I did read it. I'm trying to say they are not dumb, and no one is giving up on this form factor.
    - wdh505 2y ago
      If a robot were to pilot a analog aircraft, it would need to be roughly human shape or specifically designed. If a robot were to reach an AED without frying it with magnets, it would need to be tall enough and have fingers. I agree with you that there are more efficient shapes out there (like the robot from interstellar) but a humanoid at slightly shorter than the average adult (for fear related reasons) shape is the best general purpose shape because it is so backward compatible in all sorts of not yet imagined emergency scenarios.
Fricken 2y ago
BD is done with hydraulics. I wonder how good this new robot will be at powerful, dynamic movements such as leaps and flips.
- stephc_int13 2y ago
  Their previous humanoid robot, Atlas, was using hydraulics. But Spot (the dog like one) is not.
  - itishappy 2y ago
    Right, and I believe only Atlas was capable of leaps and flips.
    - klowrey 2y ago
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNeZWP5Mx9s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNeZWP5Mx9s different configuration, but electric motors are fine if you get momentum on your side. Humans use their entire range of motion get build up velocity to jump; this is motion control thing.
chaostheory 2y ago
What I find funny is just like with generative AI, this was under the Google banner first until it got struck with office politics related to Andy Rubin. I still don’t understand why someone else at Google didn’t take it over. They really lost their way a long time ago.
exodust 2y ago
I wonder if you could send a robot to the store to buy cigarettes in the UK, or indeed the robot may decide it wants to buy cigarettes. "Sorry we can't sell cigarettes to anyone born after 2009, or robots".
- unsupp0rted 2y ago
  If we're sending these robots to buy cigarettes at the store, then we've failed horribly
  - exodust 2y ago
    These robots will be available to buy within our lifetime. Look at the nicely designed power button on the back with blue light ring. They are preparing for consumers. An elderly relative of mine has smoked his whole life. He admits it's bad but won't stop regardless of pressure from family. He enjoys the routine and the quiet moment. He would absolutely send his robot to buy cigarettes if possible. Nobody else in the family wants to buy them.
linsomniac 2y ago
Two words: Nightmare fuel.
- waltbosz 2y ago
  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.
  - SiempreViernes 2y ago
    It's such obvious horror bait there will be something good up by tomorrow.
  - Karellen 2y ago
    As someone did with one of the previous ones? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4jKSdfRtxk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4jKSdfRtxk
Isamu 2y ago
The 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.
- coffeebeqn 2y ago
  They did say it’s for commercial use. Probably for warehouses and such where sadly backflipping is not relevant
  - HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
    You'll know AGI has really arrived when we do have factory robots backflipping and doing stupid stuff to amuse themselves.
    - geodel 2y ago
      I feel Robot Unions will have to make backflipping as part of collective bargain agreement.
      - kevindamm 2y ago
        What do we want?? BACKFLIPS. When do we want them? [backflips]
    - coffeebeqn 2y ago
      And posting that to robot tiktok
  - jiminymcmoogley 2y ago
    see what i find puzzling is that warehouses have flat floors right? so what benefit does the upfront cost of building something with a bunch of extra actuators for all the joints in 2 legs, and the ongoing running costs of far less mechanically efficient bipedal locomotion have over wheeled movement like their other robot, the Handle, offers? i should mention i know nothing about robots so i'm sure there must be a good reason for it, but this thought has been on my mind ever since I saw george hotz bring it up in the Comma Body reveal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhvt0ZmqmGQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhvt0ZmqmGQ as a layperson, i feel like biomimicry only makes sense for hands and arms, at least for the vast majority of commercial use cases
semireg 2y ago
Love how they applied first principles to standing up. Can’t wait to see how the robot deals with “disarm human.” Spoiler alert: dis-arm.
- cooper_ganglia 2y ago
  "Atlas, please deliver this to John." "Understood, now de-livering John."
- trollerator23 2y ago
  Why, like this of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYsulVXpgYg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYsulVXpgYg
  - dylan604 2y ago
    Non-sequiter, but the 80s era Dallas skyline is a fun throwback
- russdill 2y ago
  Oh, you mean this gate key?
- TiredOfLife 2y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzbT0Q2jh_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzbT0Q2jh_w
hentrep 2y ago
Maybe it’s just the lighting, but this look like CGI to me.
- stephc_int13 2y ago
  Would you bet any money on this? Boston Dynamics is not run by bozos, they have a pretty consistent track record of showing the real stuff.
  - hentrep 2y ago
    No, I wouldn’t. And I appreciate the Boston Dynamics track record. That said, they do have a reputation for viral video releases. Curiously, they usually show some sort of human interaction with their new robots, but maybe too early here? Particularly loved the video of the engineer shoving the robot as it negotiated an obstacle course. Would you bet money that it isn’t CGI? The fact that we are asking these questions is just as terrifying and impressive as the malicious potential of the robot itself. Wild days we’re living in!
    - stephc_int13 2y ago
      Yes I am sure this is not CGI. I would bet. Their marketing style is built around viral Youtube video showing their prototypes being impressive or simply entertaining. Including when the fails. They got a lot of recognition and attention thanks to this, I would not blame them, I prefer this to sterilized marketing we're seeing most of the time.
solardev 2y ago
OK well, guess I ain't sleeping this week.
Karellen 2y ago
Boston Dynamics: Hey everyone, we're really excited to show you the great progress we are making in our attempts to re-create the Torment Nexus, from the classic cautionary sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus. Too many responses: Oh, wow, it's so creepy, just like the book! Lol. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it won't turn out as bad as DCTTN. ;-) Best just get on with my day and mostly forget about it then... (With apologies to Alex Blechman)
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
stephc_int13 2y ago
I am much more excited to see the progress of what Boston Dynamics is doing than by the next iteration of AI Chat. Of course this is not directly comparable, but I think robotics is harder and more less open to brute force approaches.
- p1esk 2y ago
  I’m pretty sure the next iteration of “AI chat” (multimodal generative models) will enable the next iteration of robotics.
  - stephc_int13 2y ago
    Would you bet on that?
- andsoitis 2y ago
  Robots can also learn about their environment and the results of their interactions in a direct way. Embodied learning and competence, if you will.
andsoitis 2y ago
At least you can hear it coming.
andrewinardeer 2y ago
Nothing to worry about here.
cess11 2y ago
The cyberpunk authors warned us. We should have listened.
- realce 2y ago
  But money!
throwaway71271 2y ago
just in time for the civil war :) Geoffrey Hinton suggested that by 2030 the US military wants 50% robot
- GaryNumanVevo 2y ago
  No expensive VA payouts for robots
FpUser 2y ago
OMG. When he got hydraulic lines raptured or severed his foot I felt like I was watching human being hurt. Insane.
squarefoot 2y ago
Quite scary, but can't hold a candle to this one ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3RIHnK0_NE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3RIHnK0_NE
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- eddieroger 2y ago
  Using my human brain, I can't tell if this is real or not. One day the robots are going to watch this video and decide they've had enough, and that's how we all end, joke video or not. I really do hope it's a joke, but there's not enough money in the world for me to start smacking around a robot holding a live firearm.
  - jlv2 2y ago
    That link is CGI.
mklarmann 2y ago
I guess the big news is, that it runs on batteries
aap_ 2y ago
Recently got a tour through boston dynamics, but mostly saw the spot department, the atlas department was off limits. I guess this was the reason then :) very cool
ChrisArchitect 2y ago
Related: Boston Dynamics Retires Its Legendary Humanoid Robot https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40063766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40063766
p1mrx 2y ago
> a [still looking for a collective noun for humanoid robots] of Atlases a logic of Atlases?
sebastianconcpt 2y ago
Sorry for the non technical, but the comments in that YouTube video have significant LOL value.
luckyou 2y ago
As usual, science fiction predicted everything exactly the opposite. It was thought that robots would handle hard physical labor while humans would engage in creative work...
relaxing 2y ago
Good, the hydraulic version sucked ass. Jerky, unpredictable power delivery, when it wasn’t broken. Was such a pain to model and design kinematics around.
- big_whack 2y ago
  Were you working on that at BD? Who is designing kinematics around Atlas? I understood it to have no users.
benjijay 2y ago
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.
- kfarr 2y ago
  Yeah that head design doesn’t help things
- TechDebtDevin 2y ago
  Well I think it's ironically mimicking The Exorcist or one of those movies so makes sense.
- WASDx 2y ago
  It looks like CGI to me, the way to camera moves together with the depth of field and that things appear too shiny. They don't state anything about it so I don't know what to believe.
  - porphyra 2y ago
    Funny how the ubiquity of AI generated artwork plus the shitty quality of phone videos has made people to think that "high quality + depth of field = fake". However if you look closely the robot does have scuffs and scratches on it so I think it's real.
    - lancesells 2y ago
      I think it's real, but any good texture artist would include scuffs and scratches on the model.
    - BobaFloutist 2y ago
      Reminds me to how high framerate made (makes?) people think "Soap Opera", even though it's technically higher quality.
      - 2y ago
FabHK 2y ago
We've come a long way from the 2015 DARPA Challenge, where the robots succeeded only in falling down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TaYhjpOfo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TaYhjpOfo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Robotics_Challenge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Robotics_Challenge
FabHK 2y ago
The progress since the 2015 DARPA challenge (where robots succeeded mostly in falling down) is impressive. Less than a decade! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TaYhjpOfo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TaYhjpOfo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Robotics_Challenge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Robotics_Challenge
- aidenn0 2y ago
  looks like a game of qwop[1] 1: http://www.foddy.net/Athletics.html http://www.foddy.net/Athletics.html
- pms 2y ago
  You're comparing a satirical video from 2015 with a 2024 marketing video... Not exactly a fair comparison...
ericfrenkiel 2y ago
I, 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.
modeless 2y ago
Does anyone else think the joints seem stiffer than the hydraulic version? The head and torso are receiving a lot of shock forces with each step. That seems like a downgrade from the previous one. It clearly has a much larger range of motion and if it is also stronger as claimed then I can't wait for the acrobatics videos that are surely coming. But I think the most exciting thing is that it has hands from the start. Atlas didn't have hands for most of its existence and so couldn't do much in the way of useful tasks. I think controlling hands is actually much harder than walking or doing backflips. Hopefully Boston Dynamics will be able to make this version useful.
- rimeice 2y ago
  Some c3po vibes at the end there for sure.
- weinzierl 2y ago
  I'd assume this is just a software problem. As long as we are talking about the stiffness of the joints and not the limbs I see no reason to not be able so simulate it.
- jvanderbot 2y ago
  Electric motors dont have a lot of "give", like hydraulics do. But yes force-torque controllers can be tuned to be squishier. Someday I think electric motors will be the muscles and we'll have some kind of elastic tendons. For energy efficiency, it seems obvious to harness impact energy in a mechanical spring system, as nature does. Or just use wheels / a wheel. This whole humanoid thing strikes me as an addiction to old sci Fi stories.
  - klowrey 2y ago
    Hydraulics shouldn't have any give, as the working fluid is considered "incompressible". Of course in the real world the tubing can expand slightly and there are friction losses, but the reason they went with hydraulics in the first place is they can set a position and not have to use more energy to hold it there (since the cylinders are pressurized). If the gear ratio on these motors is high, then there can only be faked compliance in the tuned force-torque controllers you mentioned. MIT's little cheetah robot, on the other hand, deliberately used low-gear ratios to keep things naturally squishy if needed. This is the way to go; putting elastic tendons or spring elements seems like a good idea but then you can't actually model the non-linearity well (the 1st order motor becomes a 2nd or higher order system).
mandibles 2y ago
NYPD probably has an order for 10k of these things, for your protection of course.
ericfrenkiel 2y ago
I, 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.
- peddling-brink 2y ago
  Only positive? What a fascinating optimism you have. There are a sizable percentage of people out there that would love to use this for subjugation and control. Will we let them win?
thrwaway1337 2y ago
I'm recording this, because this could be the last thing I'll ever say The city I once knew as home is teetering on the edge of radioactive oblivion A three-hundred thousand degree baptism by nuclear fire I'm not sorry, we had it coming A surge of white-hot atonement will be our wake-up call Hope for our future is now a stillborn dream The bombs begin to fall and I'm rushing to meet my love Please, remember me There is no more
dang 2y ago
Related links (from merged threads): Farewell to HD Atlas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8 Boston Dynamics retires its legendary humanoid robot https://spectrum.ieee.org/boston-dynamics-atlas-retires https://spectrum.ieee.org/boston-dynamics-atlas-retires All New Atlas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ECwExc-_M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ECwExc-_M
1970-01-01 2y ago
I would love to see how well it does the simple job of sweeping and cleaning floors with a broom and dust pan. This is such a wicked and non-trivial task that it would be a good indicator of overall progress.
- nirav72 2y ago
  Just 10 years ago, bi-pedal humanoid robots could barely walk untethered. If they could, like the Honda robot - even then they had limited mobility. So this is quite the progress. But yeah, it will be interesting to see if they can do mundane chores that require very little effort by humans.
  - moffkalast 2y ago
    Throwing more compute at MPPI controllers has been oddly successful, it'll just get more accurate over time with increasing samples on ever faster hardware.
- matthewfelgate 2y ago
  Didn't someone say that a basic test of if humanoid robots are useful if they pass the garbage test: can they take out the garbage in an average American house.
  - klowrey 2y ago
    Woah we can’t ask for the impossible. We just want the robots to _make_ all the things that end up as garbage in the average American home.
Tiereven 2y ago
As we enter an era of wide scale robotic deployment, we need to think long and hard about what the maintenance bottleneck will look like. We need to advocate now for reliable and open upgrades, replacement parts, service documentation, and diagnostics. Right to repair will be even more important for this technology than autos or general computing.
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  Oregon model: https://www.opb.org/article/2024/03/28/oregon-governor-kotek-signs-strong-tech-right-to-repair-bill/ https://www.opb.org/article/2024/03/28/oregon-governor-kotek... https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2023R1/Downloads/PublicTestimonyDocument/46928 https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2023R1/Downloads/Publ...
  - Tiereven 2y ago
    Thanks for the references. > Under the law, companies that make cellphones and other consumer electronics are required to provide the tools and know-how to repair those devices. 1. Do you think the Oregon law fell short by not requiring industrial electronics to be repairable as well? 2. Will the proliferation of tools and know-how for repair be sufficient to meaningfully extend the life of most electronics? 3. Is legal mandate sufficient or necessary to motivate companies to open their chests to the public? Or is a voluntary movement possible that still rewards the stakeholders? My hope is that projects like Atlas will be sustainable and prices eventually come down to commodity levels - say the price scale of cars. If people are empowered with tools to develop on these machines in a safe way, I think we could see a revolution similar to the cell phone or PC. My fear is that these machines will become just an extra inefficient automation step in an overpriced supply chain one-off application.
- antisthenes 2y ago
  > Right to repair will be even more important for this technology than autos or general computing. It's going to be kneecapped far worse than phones or tractors. A general purpose humanoid robot is orders of magnitude more complex than a simple gps farming tractor or a cheap android phone. Companies will absolutely NOT want to give up that moat after developing such tech for 10-20 years.
chasd00 2y ago
doesn't it make more sense to have robots like these drive cars? Then any car, even an old clunker, can be a "self-driving car". You could offload the heavy processing to a larger computer in the back seat. Then even the robots get to suffer with backseat drivers :)
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
lvl102 2y ago
I am so glad Masayoshi sold BD to Hyundai so Elon didn’t get his hands on them. They can easily go public for $10B.
browningstreet 2y ago
Are there accessible and/or remote kill switches on these?
smeej 2y ago
The Doctor Who fan in me is just glad it sounds like a Cyberman when it walks.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
GregDavidson 2y ago
I'm more interested in how they're automating the manufacturing of their robots. Robots making robots driving the learning curve.
John_da 2y ago
[flagged]
e12e 2y ago
> This journey will start with Hyundai Wonder if that includes weapon systems? https://en.hyundai-wia.com/business/defense_business.asp https://en.hyundai-wia.com/business/defense_business.asp > With its cutting-edge unmanned and automated weapons systems, Hyundai WIA upgraded the level of defense industry system.
- Ralfp 2y ago
  In late 2022 they made a pledge together with few other companies to don't weaponize their robots tech: https://www.axios.com/2022/10/06/boston-dynamics-pledges-weaponize-robots https://www.axios.com/2022/10/06/boston-dynamics-pledges-wea...
  - e12e 2y ago
    Isn't Spot already used in defense/anti-terror capacity? Ed: apparently the pledge came after Hyundai took control? https://bostondynamics.com/news/hyundai-motor-group-completes-acquisition-of-boston-dynamics-from-softbank/ https://bostondynamics.com/news/hyundai-motor-group-complete...
    - vulcan01 2y ago
      I believe the pledge is "don't give weapons to / install weapons on robots." Boston Dynamics do sell to various police departments and armed forces, but don't have weapons.
chatmasta 2y ago
If a humanoid robot can assemble a car, it can probably assemble another humanoid robot…
stevage 2y ago
I must be old, but when I look at stuff like this I feel nothing but dread.
RhysU 2y ago
That video is Cirque de Soleil meets The Mitchells vs the Machines.
metalrain 2y ago
So as robots became more capable and less contained (like current industrial robot arms). What novel tools/techniques there are to stop misbehaving robot? Will casting a net stop robot like this or do you have to somehow dismember it?
KnuthIsGod 2y ago
FANUC robots are the dominant species across the world. Boston Dynamics robots have good marketing, but are yet to make a profit for their owners.
- ofrzeta 2y ago
  What about KUKA? In Europe they seem to be quite dominant although I don't have numbers.
consumer451 2y ago
Related: > Billionaire-Fueled Lobbying Group Behind the State Bills to Ban UBI Experiments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39549098 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39549098
welzel 2y ago
[flagged]
meindnoch 2y ago
This moves like a real robot. In contrast, the Figure 01 video was clearly a fake one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq1QZB5baNw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq1QZB5baNw).
- boo-ga-ga 2y ago
  Why do you think that was fake?
  - meindnoch 2y ago
    Low quality motion. The robot's movements have no inertia. Too smooth, too artificial. Like how video game characters move without motion capture. There's also too much ambient occlusion in the rendering, but they were careful with the materials and the scene that it looks somewhat plausible. Compare it with an actual video of their real robot: https://youtu.be/48qL8Jt39Vs?si=Kkb7oTnYf-GllRJv https://youtu.be/48qL8Jt39Vs?si=Kkb7oTnYf-GllRJv The difference in the movements is clearly visible.

473 points by colinramsay 2y ago

The circular screen is supposed to display the words "PLEASE DISPLAY YOUR PAPERWORK, CITIZEN", otherwise what's the point really

zzzeek 2y ago
holy crap you people are HUMORLESS. so sad.
squarefoot 2y ago
...a robot make up artist with built in mirror?

koko-blat 2y ago

But Amnon has a better solution... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJTf4JhGSsI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJTf4JhGSsI

temporarely 2y ago

r/legendary/creepy

blackhawkC17 2y ago

Figure, a new startup, is working on a similar humanoid robot. They just raised $675 million from Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft [1]. Not sure about their chances of succeeding. On the other hand, as a non-American, I admire that the USA is seemingly the only place where people get funding for wonky ideas that sometimes become very successful. 1- https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/29/robot-startup-figure-valued-at-2point6-billion-by-bezos-amazon-nvidia.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/29/robot-startup-figure-valued-...

echelon 2y ago
It's not the only one, but it's the one that's raised the most capital. This "robots + AI" space is heating up just as fast as LLMs, and every country seems to have a dozen startups in the ring. Here is just a sample: https://www.1x.tech/androids/neo https://www.1x.tech/androids/neo https://rainbow-robotics.com/en_main?_l=en https://rainbow-robotics.com/en_main?_l=en https://sanctuary.ai/ https://sanctuary.ai/ https://www.tesla.com/AI https://www.tesla.com/AI https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CToL2qkCd8g https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CToL2qkCd8g (funny) https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1b10p2i/chinese_robots_faster_than_optimus/ https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1b10p2i/chines... https://www.engadget.com/menteebot-is-a-human-sized-ai-robot-that-you-command-with-natural-language-110052927.html https://www.engadget.com/menteebot-is-a-human-sized-ai-robot... https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/15jywv2/apparently_chinese_robotics_company_working_on/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/15jyw... (NSFW) ... Everyone is working on this.
- modeless 2y ago
  A while ago I made a blog post collecting 20+ efforts for humanoid robots specifically. There has been a real explosion in humanoid announcements in the past few months and it's hard to keep up even if you follow the news. https://james.darpinian.com/blog/you-havent-seen-these-real-humanoid-robot-demos https://james.darpinian.com/blog/you-havent-seen-these-real-... Edit: Haha, case in point. I opened Twitter and sure enough there's a new announcement of a humanoid robot today, from Intel/Mobileye: https://twitter.com/AmnonShashua/status/1780611499133685889 https://twitter.com/AmnonShashua/status/1780611499133685889
neom 2y ago
imho, Nobody does capitalism better than the Americans the South Koreans, and the Japanese(I guess because of the lack of natural resource in their geographies for KR/JP?). I've been privileged enough to build in those countries for an extended period of time, and work with builders in many other countries. I strongly believe nobody bruit forces ideas into existence better than them, they make the resources happen in the right way. Even if you're not much into capitalism, how deeply it's been embraced by the culture still fascinating, especially as a Canadian where I believe we do capitalism particularly poorly.
- rmbyrro 2y ago
  > Nobody does capitalism better than the Americans the South Koreans, and the Japanese(I guess because of the lack of natural resource in their geographies for KR/JP?) China is not far behind, despite an authoritarian govt. KR & JP, as well as CH, clearly learned well from Americans.
- fsloth 2y ago
  I agree, the skill inherent apparently in the US culture of using capital to scale things up compared to the rest of the west feels unappreciated. You give a US capitalist money, labour pool, and a goal, they will organize them to a system to deliver miracles. This is not obviously how things go! It is an underappreciated virtue. I wonder if there is research on the topic - I mean Adam Smith is translated to all languages so it’s not about the ideas or non-tacit knowledge. Must be something institutional or otherwise cultural.
  - rrrrrrrrrrrryan 2y ago
    It's just a that competition is a core cultural value in these nations, and that competitive spirit lands itself really well to capitalism.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- FpUser 2y ago
  I live in Canada and have found many Canadians lacking drive, curiosity and will. Also far from being straight in business to the point they feel like politicians. In average dealing with USians was much more to my liking (I am originally from the USSR). There are of course exceptions on either side.

moi2388 2y ago

Well, that article didn’t say anything at all really, now did it?

fforflo 2y ago

What's the best way/resource to get an honest/pragmatic view of where things stand with the "robots market" in general and how much and fast things are really progressing? I remember seeing prototypes from Toshiba when I was 10 (20 years ago), and every few months, there is a company releasing an "amazing video." its mother company then spins it off like there's no adequate progress, and so on.

DoctorDabadedoo 2y ago
Talk to people in the area, I guess we do miss honest and straight forward source of info for the general public. In general robotics flies under the radar because it's rare to see a unicorn or anything really flashy and there is a big gap between big aspirations and fake demos and real world applications with polished use cases and diligent design, processes, etc. source: I'm a skeptic roboticist working in the industry.
- fforflo 2y ago
  I have zero ties to the industry. Am I right to assume there's a lot of DoD-driven echo chamber? Material being produced for the big clients and contracts ?
  - DoctorDabadedoo 2y ago
    I'm not based in the US to give you an accurate picture on this scene, most of it happens behind the curtains. What I can say it's there has been always a movement to weaponize robotics in some way and this has gained interest from the market in the past few years specially with the Ukrainian and Palestinian wars. It takes time and a lot of money to polish an application like this, if there isn't a behemoth funding research and PD on this it will take a long time before it takes off, and I hope it never does.
EcommerceFlow 2y ago
I'd say Tesla is the leader or could quickly become the leader given their intense investment in FSD. If a car software can "understand the physical world" using vision Ai / neural nets, it shouldn't be out of the question to reoptimize that software for the rest of the "physical world". Especially when you need a whole lot less safety standards compared to a 3,000lb 70MPH vehicle. Hell, the Optimus engineers said they were considering doing the first demo on a road since the software was so similar lol. With FSD 12.3.3 released, it's clear FSD is getting smarter and smarter. How many of those releases left until people trust Optimus to fold their laundry? 1.0 Optimius will still be pretty dumb, but could still be worth the price (especially with continuous software upgrades!)

charlesabarnes 2y ago

Seems like they just posted a video about the new Atlas https://youtu.be/29ECwExc-_M https://youtu.be/29ECwExc-_M

Klaster_1 2y ago
Wow, the ways All New Atlas can move in are really something else. Really channels that Star Wars battle droid vibes.
- bamboozled 2y ago
  I actually find it less creepy than the original atlas for some reason ha. It looks like there is a chance this one will be able to unpack the dishwasher, until it decides it doesn't want that job anymore :)
  - pdpi 2y ago
    The original was at the edge of the uncanney valley in the way it moved. This one seems a lot less human-like in its movement so doesn't conjure up those feelings for me.
- WilTimSon 2y ago
  I found it creepy at first, then I saw a comment saying it looks like the lamp from the Pixar intro and now I can’t take it seriously. Beautiful movement, though. I hope one day they’ll be simple and powerful enough to replace people in high-risk jobs, where you could even just control one remotely and perform tasks that way.
  - huytersd 2y ago
    Years of sci-fi made the “wait till the light on its head turns red” comment resonate more for me.
- HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
  It reminds me of these battle bots built out of servo motors, which is basically what this is in terms of construction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ekK2QgflM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ekK2QgflM Maybe we need life-size robot battles? Would love to see son-of-Atlas suplexing TeslaBot like that mini white one does!

xnx 2y ago

"Legendary"? Definitely a cool novelty/tech-demo/research-platform, but nothing about it seems "legendary".

DonnyV 2y ago

I still can't believe Google sold this company. What an absolute horrible decision.

dkobia 2y ago

If all Boston Dynamics did was make Youtube videos, they'd have a pretty good business.

fforflo 2y ago
Do they list Sora as a potential competitor?
simplicio 2y ago
Is that their business? They've been around for 30+ years and I don't think they've ever successfully commercialized a product. So far as I can tell, they just hop from DARPA grant to DARPA grant and make cool videos of the results. I don't have any particular problem with that, but its a little weird? I figured they were a more traditional industrial robotics company that just did the humanoid robots as a side line for publicity, but googling, I guess that's not the case.
- colingoodman 2y ago
  They've sold some of their robots (particularly the dog) to PDs and manufacturing companies. Not sure if they've ever been profitable, though.
  - yuck39 2y ago
    Personal data point, I see their dogs at defense-adjacent trade shows all the time.
- InSteady 2y ago
  They have been on the bleeding edge of autonomous robotics R&D for a very long time now. If they were more focused on commercialization for the past 20 years then they wouldn't have pushed the tech forward as far and as fast as they have. The whole point of the article is speculating that they are specifically retiring their hydraulic robot because it was never going to be commercially viable. Which makes it look like they are finally ready to pivot from pure R&D to commercial production. Thus they want fully electronic robots instead of hydraulics that are messy and require more (almost constant?) maintenance. I'm not an engineering guy but I assume the hydraulics were more useful for pushing the boundaries of possible motion with such a heavy, robust, and versatile design. Now that the AI systems controlling vision, motion, proprioception/spatial awareness, etc are more fully developed, they can create more specialized and scaled down versions of the robot for specific applications that are lighter and don't require hydraulics to perform their tasks reliably? Just guessing here, am happy to be corrected or given more a nuanced take.

ragebol 2y ago

That is a very good-looking robot and no doubt very capable. But did I see correctly that it can just turn it legs 180 degrees to move backwards, as well as it's head? Talk about super-human abilities! Bit creepy though

neom 2y ago
Very cool actuation indeed. I'm not in robotics, so this could be fan fiction, but: I guess they have figured out the physics engines for these things meaningfully, so I guess innovating on hardware can be the next focus? I feel like a lot of the early bots were just to understand the real word implications of the physics they simulated, now that they understand robot physics extremely well and seems to have built a whole OS around that, I suspect they can plug it into any hardware that they want? They have it to the point where they might be somewhat decoupled? If anyone who works in robotics sees this and can say if that is correct thinking or not, I'd be very curious.
- ragebol 2y ago
  I suspect that they have something like that indeed. In robotics, there is the concept of a Whole-body-controller, and I think BD has one of these for their robots, which can be calibrated for each individual robot. And the tools & skills to make such a controller for new robot variants fairly quick. Such WBC then makes sure that the robot reaches both it's task goals (eg. grab something, with 1, 2 arms), as well as it's (dynamic) stability goals so it doesn't fall over. They are also capable of choreographing the robot pretty accurately as we say in earlier videos. But what is most very impressive to me is the robot using the mass and momentum of things it grabs to keep stable or move itself. In one of the videos it grabs a big piece of wood and uses it to turn itself around while jumping. Amazing! Controlling that in terms of dynamics is... wow!
  - neom 2y ago
    That's what it seems like to me too, and let me tell you, i am right there with you on that last point ragebol, that stuff I also find really really amazing, because it's so thoughtful I guess, and I wish my brain was good enough to hack physics like that. People get real hyped up about GenAI etc, but I'm like a kid waiting for christmas when it comes to robotics, i sense their industry in a positive feedback loop and going to get better and better quicker and quicker. Cool time to be alive for sure. :)

beezlebroxxxxxx 2y ago

Are there any Boston Dynamic robots currently in use? Specifically the biped ones, but I'm also interested in the quadrupeds, which they seemed to be pushing for military/search and rescue/packhorse uses.

defrost 2y ago
The quadrupeds saw use in Singapore during COVID (2020) to remind people about social distancing, today (2024) they're being used in car manfacture plants to "fetch" for other fixed robots. https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/boston-dynamics-robot-dogs-have-an-impressive-new-job- https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/boston-dynamics-robot-d... so they do have non-military applications.
r0ckarong 2y ago
New York and Los Angeles at least use them (Spot) already. Nestle and AB InBev in their facilities apparently. Paris uses it for Metro inspections. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFRcle4Szo4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFRcle4Szo4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Y52zjZYXo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Y52zjZYXo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9pZQ29RSz4I https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9pZQ29RSz4I https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XPOpnJSldUg https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XPOpnJSldUg https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p535RRR5MqM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p535RRR5MqM
- nebula8804 2y ago
  SpaceX has one for what I imagine is PR purposes. [1]:https://youtu.be/aajbFO7xwBM?t=36 https://youtu.be/aajbFO7xwBM?t=36
  - chasd00 2y ago
    They use flying drones all the time, you can see them flying around in the Starbase live streams. I can't think of anything off the top of my head that a flying drone can't do but spot would be able to do at Starbase. Unless Spot can crawl into a pipe or tank maybe.

K5EiS 2y ago

They also posted a farewell to the previous robot yesterday https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8 Looking forward to see some more robot parkour/dance

tivert 2y ago
> They also posted a farewell to the previous robot yesterday > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8 I wasn't expecting to see a robot bleed, several times.
- stanski 2y ago
  It's also cool to see it tuck in its appendages when it falls; to prevent that.
jader201 2y ago
HN thread: Boston Dynamics Retires Its Legendary Humanoid Robot https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40063766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40063766

prime09 2y ago

They found the bottom of the uncanny valley and started digging.

Anotheroneagain 2y ago
[flagged]
- cooper_ganglia 2y ago
  Weird comment.
- dcuthbertson 2y ago
  That was a rather insensitive comment. People are not disposable and people with schizophrenia need help.
  - Anotheroneagain 2y ago
    Misplaced empathy. It isn't some disabled people like on a wheelchair, but people suffering from brain damage that makes them terrorize their surroundings. You can hardly find a better solution than to make places unbearable to them by intentionally triggering their hallucinatons.
- Cheyana 2y ago
  From someone with two family members suffering from schizophrenia, fuck you.
  - Anotheroneagain 2y ago
    That's misplaced empathy, and I don't think you'd speak that way if you actually experienced it, and the way they terrorize everyone.
unsupp0rted 2y ago
That was my first thought. Shock value PR stunt? Moving the Overton window for the general public’s aversion to what comes next?

3dsnano 2y ago

feels incredibly eery. it doesn't move like how my brain expects a humanoid being to move. reminds me of how the EMMI's move in Metroid Dread... especially when it goes from the prone position to standing. maybe its my DNA or i've played enough video games to realize that this thing is probably not my friend and will not end well. uncanny valley vibes.

micromacrofoot 2y ago

oh wow, this looks much more like a commercial product — quite uncanny I bet it talks

solardev 2y ago
I bet it cackles quietly while plotting your demise. All while it's looking the other way.

jack_riminton 2y ago

A 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

dcchambers 2y ago
If we ever see a world where robots need to be useful outside of a factory with perfectly flat concrete floors, then yes - there needs to be continued evolution in traversal over uneven ground and around unanticipated objects. Bipedal locomotion is useful for this (although not the only solution). Right now the hardest jobs to replace will be those of plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc where they need to operate with fine motor skills in unique and challenging locations - no two ever being the same.
- chasd00 2y ago
  i think search and rescue is a great application of humanoid robotics, you need something very versatile and a human body is not a bad model for a universal terrain form factor.
snek_case 2y ago
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 build robots that can be useful inside a house, then they need to be able to cope with stairs. There's also construction... At some point, you don't have elevators... Or just circulating between buildings out on the street where the pavement isn't great.
- polygamous_bat 2y ago

michelb 2y ago

Fantastic movement, not bound to human anatomy.

sebastianconcpt 2y ago
That uncanny valley effect tho..

dcchambers 2y ago

Lmao of course they had to make him get up off the ground in the creepiest way possible.

dcuthbertson 2y ago
Oh the horrors! Please use "it", not "him"! These machines are creepy enough w/o being anthropomorphized more than they already are! 8-)
- HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
  This guy seems less creepy than his predecessor. He looks more like a hobby servo-motor robot. I liked the aesthetics of hydraulic Atlas better - somehow fitted well with the character they gave him in all the choreographed demos. I can't see them really being creepy unless/until we get to "uncanny valley" territory with realistic faces and expressions.
- huytersd 2y ago
  I don’t find him creepy at all. The movements are smooth and pleasing.
  - dylan604 2y ago
    I'm not sure that when the robot overlords look through their training data if they will decide that "huytersd" was being serious of facetious. This may not have the effect you were looking for.
ackbar03 2y ago
Then it trots off looking for john connor cause the terminator films were in the training dataset
Narretz 2y ago
They did stress that one advantage of electric motors over hydraulics is better mobility. On the other hand, the motors probably do not yet have the power to make jumps and the like.

seatac76 2y ago

Looks like they were able to miniaturize a lot of the components. Looks much cleaner and the dexterity looks much improved too.

Mizza 2y ago

Jesus fuck. I guess the war machine is hungry again so they've fired all the people who made the cute dancing videos and brought in the nightmare engineers. I'm thinking more and more that that "Terminator" was the most accurate of all the sci-fi dystopias.

JKCalhoun 2y ago
Or perhaps "A.I.".
micromacrofoot 2y ago
the war machine is never not hungry, Boston Dynamics has received some funding from the Department of Defense and has sold robots to various police departments and other government agencies

matthewfelgate 2y ago

1. Amazing technical ability. 2. Feels scary, both the beyond-human movement, and the design of the 'face'.

systemz 2y ago

I was excited when I saw the title. Now I'm scared due to this hardware and being aware of LLM possibilities and mixing it.

2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
I'm excited at the yet unexplored military applications.
- Karellen 2y ago
  You're excited... at the yet unexplored military applications... of humanity finding ever more efficient ways of killing each other? FML, that's dark.
  - 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
    War is already dark and more precision makes it less dark. Winning faster saves lives.
    - Karellen 2y ago
      Making war feel less risky to politicians who want to wage it for domestic jingoistic bullshit reasons[0] makes war more likely to happen in the first place, which costs lives. Also, bold of you to assume you're going to be winning. Does the excitement about this new tech hold up if you consider it from the perspective that it's going to be used against you and your troops? [0] as opposed to actual defence against invasion - despite the euphemism commonly used by western governments for their military political departments. And what %age of military actions in the last 50 years that your country was involved in count as one, or the other?
      - 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
        You're making so many assumptions that you're attacking a scarecrow. I think that more precision (which may make war "easier") makes up for it in total lives spared. How are militarized robots worse than a JDAM? If I didn't believe that it is more merciful on the whole then I wouldn't take this position. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-in-wars-project-mars?time=1935..latest https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-in-wars-project-ma...

doodda 2y ago

I don't know enough about robotics to judge BD's technology or innovations. What I can be sure of is that they have an incredible marketing function.

I_ 2y ago
It's hard to judge from any video like this because you can't be sure what's pre-programmed. Their hardware is second to none.

alfor 2y ago

Funny, just after the all electric Optimus. For sure they have been working on this for a long time. I predict that they will also move toward neural nets for all the vision, control and understanding of the world (like Tesla)

hiddencost 2y ago
"move towards neural nets ... like Tesla" You sound confused.
- alfor 2y ago
  why? FSD is based on neural net so is Optimus vision
  - itsoktocry 2y ago
    >FSD is based on neural net so is Optimus vision Do you think Tesla invented neural nets or something?
    - DiggyJohnson 2y ago
      Where on Earth did they imply that?
      - yareal 2y ago
        I think the parent and gp poster are more like, "Tesla is an odd reference. Not wrong per se, just odd." It's like saying, "they are building a search engine, just like Netflix!" Sure, Netflix does build search, but like... are they the canonical example for the domain?
- DiggyJohnson 2y ago
  What do you mean? This sounds like a low-effort, hostile reply unless you provide more reasoning for your dismissal. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

nbzso 2y ago

So it begins. John, where are you?

tivert 2y ago

The VCs said "don't be afraid," AI wasn't going to be Skynet. Rather it would a tool that would bring about a utopia of human flourishing. But it was always going to be Skynet. I bet the next version will have teeth.

ok_dad 2y ago
AI and robots like this may be how the wealthy will replace the problematic plebeians.
drusepth 2y ago
To be fair, teeth would help it pre-chew food for humans.

assimpleaspossi 2y ago

I'm thinking the humanoid approach to robotics is now a gimmick. In most--if not all--cases, a robot in human form is not necessary at all if the approach is to get work done.

pixl97 2y ago
It turns out the humanoid shape when making a general purpose robot is useful because humans have designed all the things around us, for humans.
- itslennysfault 2y ago
  That's kinda a weird conclusion to reach. They discontinued this (old, hydraulic) humanoid robot to focus on their new (fully electric) humanoid robot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ECwExc-_M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ECwExc-_M
  - pixl97 2y ago
    I'm assuming you didn't read the parent comment to mine saying "humanoid robots are dumb", so I'm not sure what you're trying to say.
    - itslennysfault 2y ago
      I did read it. I'm trying to say they are not dumb, and no one is giving up on this form factor.
  - wdh505 2y ago
    If a robot were to pilot a analog aircraft, it would need to be roughly human shape or specifically designed. If a robot were to reach an AED without frying it with magnets, it would need to be tall enough and have fingers. I agree with you that there are more efficient shapes out there (like the robot from interstellar) but a humanoid at slightly shorter than the average adult (for fear related reasons) shape is the best general purpose shape because it is so backward compatible in all sorts of not yet imagined emergency scenarios.

Fricken 2y ago

BD is done with hydraulics. I wonder how good this new robot will be at powerful, dynamic movements such as leaps and flips.

stephc_int13 2y ago
Their previous humanoid robot, Atlas, was using hydraulics. But Spot (the dog like one) is not.
- itishappy 2y ago
  Right, and I believe only Atlas was capable of leaps and flips.
  - klowrey 2y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNeZWP5Mx9s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNeZWP5Mx9s different configuration, but electric motors are fine if you get momentum on your side. Humans use their entire range of motion get build up velocity to jump; this is motion control thing.

chaostheory 2y ago

What I find funny is just like with generative AI, this was under the Google banner first until it got struck with office politics related to Andy Rubin. I still don’t understand why someone else at Google didn’t take it over. They really lost their way a long time ago.

exodust 2y ago

I wonder if you could send a robot to the store to buy cigarettes in the UK, or indeed the robot may decide it wants to buy cigarettes. "Sorry we can't sell cigarettes to anyone born after 2009, or robots".

unsupp0rted 2y ago
If we're sending these robots to buy cigarettes at the store, then we've failed horribly
- exodust 2y ago
  These robots will be available to buy within our lifetime. Look at the nicely designed power button on the back with blue light ring. They are preparing for consumers. An elderly relative of mine has smoked his whole life. He admits it's bad but won't stop regardless of pressure from family. He enjoys the routine and the quiet moment. He would absolutely send his robot to buy cigarettes if possible. Nobody else in the family wants to buy them.

linsomniac 2y ago

Two words: Nightmare fuel.

waltbosz 2y ago
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.
- SiempreViernes 2y ago
  It's such obvious horror bait there will be something good up by tomorrow.
- Karellen 2y ago
  As someone did with one of the previous ones? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4jKSdfRtxk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4jKSdfRtxk

Isamu 2y ago

The 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.

coffeebeqn 2y ago
They did say it’s for commercial use. Probably for warehouses and such where sadly backflipping is not relevant
- HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
  You'll know AGI has really arrived when we do have factory robots backflipping and doing stupid stuff to amuse themselves.
  - geodel 2y ago
    I feel Robot Unions will have to make backflipping as part of collective bargain agreement.
    - kevindamm 2y ago
      What do we want?? BACKFLIPS. When do we want them? [backflips]
  - coffeebeqn 2y ago
    And posting that to robot tiktok
- jiminymcmoogley 2y ago
  see what i find puzzling is that warehouses have flat floors right? so what benefit does the upfront cost of building something with a bunch of extra actuators for all the joints in 2 legs, and the ongoing running costs of far less mechanically efficient bipedal locomotion have over wheeled movement like their other robot, the Handle, offers? i should mention i know nothing about robots so i'm sure there must be a good reason for it, but this thought has been on my mind ever since I saw george hotz bring it up in the Comma Body reveal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhvt0ZmqmGQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhvt0ZmqmGQ as a layperson, i feel like biomimicry only makes sense for hands and arms, at least for the vast majority of commercial use cases

semireg 2y ago

Love how they applied first principles to standing up. Can’t wait to see how the robot deals with “disarm human.” Spoiler alert: dis-arm.

cooper_ganglia 2y ago
"Atlas, please deliver this to John." "Understood, now de-livering John."
trollerator23 2y ago
Why, like this of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYsulVXpgYg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYsulVXpgYg
- dylan604 2y ago
  Non-sequiter, but the 80s era Dallas skyline is a fun throwback
russdill 2y ago
Oh, you mean this gate key?
TiredOfLife 2y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzbT0Q2jh_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzbT0Q2jh_w

hentrep 2y ago

Maybe it’s just the lighting, but this look like CGI to me.

stephc_int13 2y ago
Would you bet any money on this? Boston Dynamics is not run by bozos, they have a pretty consistent track record of showing the real stuff.
- hentrep 2y ago
  No, I wouldn’t. And I appreciate the Boston Dynamics track record. That said, they do have a reputation for viral video releases. Curiously, they usually show some sort of human interaction with their new robots, but maybe too early here? Particularly loved the video of the engineer shoving the robot as it negotiated an obstacle course. Would you bet money that it isn’t CGI? The fact that we are asking these questions is just as terrifying and impressive as the malicious potential of the robot itself. Wild days we’re living in!
  - stephc_int13 2y ago
    Yes I am sure this is not CGI. I would bet. Their marketing style is built around viral Youtube video showing their prototypes being impressive or simply entertaining. Including when the fails. They got a lot of recognition and attention thanks to this, I would not blame them, I prefer this to sterilized marketing we're seeing most of the time.

solardev 2y ago

OK well, guess I ain't sleeping this week.

Karellen 2y ago

Boston Dynamics: Hey everyone, we're really excited to show you the great progress we are making in our attempts to re-create the Torment Nexus, from the classic cautionary sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus. Too many responses: Oh, wow, it's so creepy, just like the book! Lol. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it won't turn out as bad as DCTTN. ;-) Best just get on with my day and mostly forget about it then... (With apologies to Alex Blechman)

deleted 2y ago
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stephc_int13 2y ago

I am much more excited to see the progress of what Boston Dynamics is doing than by the next iteration of AI Chat. Of course this is not directly comparable, but I think robotics is harder and more less open to brute force approaches.

p1esk 2y ago
I’m pretty sure the next iteration of “AI chat” (multimodal generative models) will enable the next iteration of robotics.
- stephc_int13 2y ago
  Would you bet on that?
andsoitis 2y ago
Robots can also learn about their environment and the results of their interactions in a direct way. Embodied learning and competence, if you will.

andsoitis 2y ago

At least you can hear it coming.

andrewinardeer 2y ago

Nothing to worry about here.

cess11 2y ago

The cyberpunk authors warned us. We should have listened.

realce 2y ago
But money!

throwaway71271 2y ago

just in time for the civil war :) Geoffrey Hinton suggested that by 2030 the US military wants 50% robot

GaryNumanVevo 2y ago
No expensive VA payouts for robots

FpUser 2y ago

OMG. When he got hydraulic lines raptured or severed his foot I felt like I was watching human being hurt. Insane.

squarefoot 2y ago

Quite scary, but can't hold a candle to this one ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3RIHnK0_NE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3RIHnK0_NE

deleted 2y ago
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eddieroger 2y ago
Using my human brain, I can't tell if this is real or not. One day the robots are going to watch this video and decide they've had enough, and that's how we all end, joke video or not. I really do hope it's a joke, but there's not enough money in the world for me to start smacking around a robot holding a live firearm.
- jlv2 2y ago
  That link is CGI.

mklarmann 2y ago

I guess the big news is, that it runs on batteries

aap_ 2y ago

Recently got a tour through boston dynamics, but mostly saw the spot department, the atlas department was off limits. I guess this was the reason then :) very cool

ChrisArchitect 2y ago

Related: Boston Dynamics Retires Its Legendary Humanoid Robot https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40063766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40063766

p1mrx 2y ago

> a [still looking for a collective noun for humanoid robots] of Atlases a logic of Atlases?

sebastianconcpt 2y ago

Sorry for the non technical, but the comments in that YouTube video have significant LOL value.

luckyou 2y ago

As usual, science fiction predicted everything exactly the opposite. It was thought that robots would handle hard physical labor while humans would engage in creative work...

relaxing 2y ago

Good, the hydraulic version sucked ass. Jerky, unpredictable power delivery, when it wasn’t broken. Was such a pain to model and design kinematics around.

big_whack 2y ago
Were you working on that at BD? Who is designing kinematics around Atlas? I understood it to have no users.

benjijay 2y ago

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.

kfarr 2y ago
Yeah that head design doesn’t help things
TechDebtDevin 2y ago
Well I think it's ironically mimicking The Exorcist or one of those movies so makes sense.
WASDx 2y ago
It looks like CGI to me, the way to camera moves together with the depth of field and that things appear too shiny. They don't state anything about it so I don't know what to believe.
- porphyra 2y ago
  Funny how the ubiquity of AI generated artwork plus the shitty quality of phone videos has made people to think that "high quality + depth of field = fake". However if you look closely the robot does have scuffs and scratches on it so I think it's real.
  - lancesells 2y ago
    I think it's real, but any good texture artist would include scuffs and scratches on the model.
  - BobaFloutist 2y ago
    Reminds me to how high framerate made (makes?) people think "Soap Opera", even though it's technically higher quality.
    - 2y ago

FabHK 2y ago

We've come a long way from the 2015 DARPA Challenge, where the robots succeeded only in falling down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TaYhjpOfo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TaYhjpOfo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Robotics_Challenge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Robotics_Challenge

FabHK 2y ago

The progress since the 2015 DARPA challenge (where robots succeeded mostly in falling down) is impressive. Less than a decade! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TaYhjpOfo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TaYhjpOfo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Robotics_Challenge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Robotics_Challenge

aidenn0 2y ago
looks like a game of qwop[1] 1: http://www.foddy.net/Athletics.html http://www.foddy.net/Athletics.html
pms 2y ago
You're comparing a satirical video from 2015 with a 2024 marketing video... Not exactly a fair comparison...

ericfrenkiel 2y ago

I, 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.

modeless 2y ago

Does anyone else think the joints seem stiffer than the hydraulic version? The head and torso are receiving a lot of shock forces with each step. That seems like a downgrade from the previous one. It clearly has a much larger range of motion and if it is also stronger as claimed then I can't wait for the acrobatics videos that are surely coming. But I think the most exciting thing is that it has hands from the start. Atlas didn't have hands for most of its existence and so couldn't do much in the way of useful tasks. I think controlling hands is actually much harder than walking or doing backflips. Hopefully Boston Dynamics will be able to make this version useful.

rimeice 2y ago
Some c3po vibes at the end there for sure.
weinzierl 2y ago
I'd assume this is just a software problem. As long as we are talking about the stiffness of the joints and not the limbs I see no reason to not be able so simulate it.
jvanderbot 2y ago
Electric motors dont have a lot of "give", like hydraulics do. But yes force-torque controllers can be tuned to be squishier. Someday I think electric motors will be the muscles and we'll have some kind of elastic tendons. For energy efficiency, it seems obvious to harness impact energy in a mechanical spring system, as nature does. Or just use wheels / a wheel. This whole humanoid thing strikes me as an addiction to old sci Fi stories.
- klowrey 2y ago
  Hydraulics shouldn't have any give, as the working fluid is considered "incompressible". Of course in the real world the tubing can expand slightly and there are friction losses, but the reason they went with hydraulics in the first place is they can set a position and not have to use more energy to hold it there (since the cylinders are pressurized). If the gear ratio on these motors is high, then there can only be faked compliance in the tuned force-torque controllers you mentioned. MIT's little cheetah robot, on the other hand, deliberately used low-gear ratios to keep things naturally squishy if needed. This is the way to go; putting elastic tendons or spring elements seems like a good idea but then you can't actually model the non-linearity well (the 1st order motor becomes a 2nd or higher order system).

mandibles 2y ago

NYPD probably has an order for 10k of these things, for your protection of course.

ericfrenkiel 2y ago

peddling-brink 2y ago
Only positive? What a fascinating optimism you have. There are a sizable percentage of people out there that would love to use this for subjugation and control. Will we let them win?

thrwaway1337 2y ago

I'm recording this, because this could be the last thing I'll ever say The city I once knew as home is teetering on the edge of radioactive oblivion A three-hundred thousand degree baptism by nuclear fire I'm not sorry, we had it coming A surge of white-hot atonement will be our wake-up call Hope for our future is now a stillborn dream The bombs begin to fall and I'm rushing to meet my love Please, remember me There is no more

dang 2y ago

Related links (from merged threads): Farewell to HD Atlas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8 Boston Dynamics retires its legendary humanoid robot https://spectrum.ieee.org/boston-dynamics-atlas-retires https://spectrum.ieee.org/boston-dynamics-atlas-retires All New Atlas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ECwExc-_M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ECwExc-_M

1970-01-01 2y ago

I would love to see how well it does the simple job of sweeping and cleaning floors with a broom and dust pan. This is such a wicked and non-trivial task that it would be a good indicator of overall progress.

nirav72 2y ago
Just 10 years ago, bi-pedal humanoid robots could barely walk untethered. If they could, like the Honda robot - even then they had limited mobility. So this is quite the progress. But yeah, it will be interesting to see if they can do mundane chores that require very little effort by humans.
- moffkalast 2y ago
  Throwing more compute at MPPI controllers has been oddly successful, it'll just get more accurate over time with increasing samples on ever faster hardware.
matthewfelgate 2y ago
Didn't someone say that a basic test of if humanoid robots are useful if they pass the garbage test: can they take out the garbage in an average American house.
- klowrey 2y ago
  Woah we can’t ask for the impossible. We just want the robots to _make_ all the things that end up as garbage in the average American home.

Tiereven 2y ago

As we enter an era of wide scale robotic deployment, we need to think long and hard about what the maintenance bottleneck will look like. We need to advocate now for reliable and open upgrades, replacement parts, service documentation, and diagnostics. Right to repair will be even more important for this technology than autos or general computing.

toomuchtodo 2y ago
Oregon model: https://www.opb.org/article/2024/03/28/oregon-governor-kotek-signs-strong-tech-right-to-repair-bill/ https://www.opb.org/article/2024/03/28/oregon-governor-kotek... https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2023R1/Downloads/PublicTestimonyDocument/46928 https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2023R1/Downloads/Publ...
- Tiereven 2y ago
  Thanks for the references. > Under the law, companies that make cellphones and other consumer electronics are required to provide the tools and know-how to repair those devices. 1. Do you think the Oregon law fell short by not requiring industrial electronics to be repairable as well? 2. Will the proliferation of tools and know-how for repair be sufficient to meaningfully extend the life of most electronics? 3. Is legal mandate sufficient or necessary to motivate companies to open their chests to the public? Or is a voluntary movement possible that still rewards the stakeholders? My hope is that projects like Atlas will be sustainable and prices eventually come down to commodity levels - say the price scale of cars. If people are empowered with tools to develop on these machines in a safe way, I think we could see a revolution similar to the cell phone or PC. My fear is that these machines will become just an extra inefficient automation step in an overpriced supply chain one-off application.
antisthenes 2y ago
> Right to repair will be even more important for this technology than autos or general computing. It's going to be kneecapped far worse than phones or tractors. A general purpose humanoid robot is orders of magnitude more complex than a simple gps farming tractor or a cheap android phone. Companies will absolutely NOT want to give up that moat after developing such tech for 10-20 years.

chasd00 2y ago

doesn't it make more sense to have robots like these drive cars? Then any car, even an old clunker, can be a "self-driving car". You could offload the heavy processing to a larger computer in the back seat. Then even the robots get to suffer with backseat drivers :)

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lvl102 2y ago

I am so glad Masayoshi sold BD to Hyundai so Elon didn’t get his hands on them. They can easily go public for $10B.

browningstreet 2y ago

Are there accessible and/or remote kill switches on these?

smeej 2y ago

The Doctor Who fan in me is just glad it sounds like a Cyberman when it walks.

deleted 2y ago

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GregDavidson 2y ago

I'm more interested in how they're automating the manufacturing of their robots. Robots making robots driving the learning curve.

John_da 2y ago

[flagged]

e12e 2y ago

> This journey will start with Hyundai Wonder if that includes weapon systems? https://en.hyundai-wia.com/business/defense_business.asp https://en.hyundai-wia.com/business/defense_business.asp > With its cutting-edge unmanned and automated weapons systems, Hyundai WIA upgraded the level of defense industry system.

Ralfp 2y ago
In late 2022 they made a pledge together with few other companies to don't weaponize their robots tech: https://www.axios.com/2022/10/06/boston-dynamics-pledges-weaponize-robots https://www.axios.com/2022/10/06/boston-dynamics-pledges-wea...
- e12e 2y ago
  Isn't Spot already used in defense/anti-terror capacity? Ed: apparently the pledge came after Hyundai took control? https://bostondynamics.com/news/hyundai-motor-group-completes-acquisition-of-boston-dynamics-from-softbank/ https://bostondynamics.com/news/hyundai-motor-group-complete...
  - vulcan01 2y ago
    I believe the pledge is "don't give weapons to / install weapons on robots." Boston Dynamics do sell to various police departments and armed forces, but don't have weapons.

chatmasta 2y ago

If a humanoid robot can assemble a car, it can probably assemble another humanoid robot…

stevage 2y ago

I must be old, but when I look at stuff like this I feel nothing but dread.

RhysU 2y ago

That video is Cirque de Soleil meets The Mitchells vs the Machines.

metalrain 2y ago

So as robots became more capable and less contained (like current industrial robot arms). What novel tools/techniques there are to stop misbehaving robot? Will casting a net stop robot like this or do you have to somehow dismember it?

KnuthIsGod 2y ago

FANUC robots are the dominant species across the world. Boston Dynamics robots have good marketing, but are yet to make a profit for their owners.

ofrzeta 2y ago
What about KUKA? In Europe they seem to be quite dominant although I don't have numbers.

consumer451 2y ago

Related: > Billionaire-Fueled Lobbying Group Behind the State Bills to Ban UBI Experiments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39549098 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39549098

welzel 2y ago

[flagged]

meindnoch 2y ago

This moves like a real robot. In contrast, the Figure 01 video was clearly a fake one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq1QZB5baNw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq1QZB5baNw).

boo-ga-ga 2y ago
Why do you think that was fake?
- meindnoch 2y ago
  Low quality motion. The robot's movements have no inertia. Too smooth, too artificial. Like how video game characters move without motion capture. There's also too much ambient occlusion in the rendering, but they were careful with the materials and the scene that it looks somewhat plausible. Compare it with an actual video of their real robot: https://youtu.be/48qL8Jt39Vs?si=Kkb7oTnYf-GllRJv https://youtu.be/48qL8Jt39Vs?si=Kkb7oTnYf-GllRJv The difference in the movements is clearly visible.