A classic of dystopian science fiction cinema brings to mind the title “I, Robot”, a futuristic story that shows how humanoid robots are part of daily life on Earth, being the main workforce of the human species. Then, a detective - played by Will Smith - begins to suspect a series of unfortunate events that, according to him, have the mark of authorship: the robots themselves.

Although this film aims to illustrate in its second part, an undesirable scenario between human beings and artificial intelligence (AI) -we repeat, it is purely fiction-, the first moments of the film evoke an everyday reality that radiates well-being and service on the part of the autonomous characters towards Humanity. The scenes showed how they worked as waste collectors or even walking dogs through the streets of the city.

A pleasant and beneficial relationship like the one we have just described is what prompted Boston Dynamics - an American engineering and robotics company - to enter the world of AI, and with it, dedicate itself to the creation of automated androids.

Now, why work on the design of humanoid robots that could replace the work of Man? The answer is simple: “giving life” to a robot that has the ability to adapt and respond to its environment with the same dexterity as an average adult human, opens up before us an infinite number of potential applications that involve maximum optimization and technological advancement at the service of people.

A humanoid that can carry out movement tasks from one place to another together with the ability to solve challenges in the moment through prior programming of algorithms, gives rise to an unbeatable design in terms of size, complexity, execution time, range of motion and physical solidity.

The first steps of Atlas

Boston Dynamics began its research and development work in 2013 based on the archetypes of a humanoid robot known as Petman - a previous model from the same company. That same year, the details of the first Atlas prototype were released. In those instances, its creators compared the machine to a small child who is learning to walk and who falls many times.

Atlas marked a milestone for robotics engineering because its peculiar bipedal assembly gives it characteristics very similar to those possessed by a human being, such as flexibility, agility and dexterity. Although this first model attempted to emulate human movements such as jumping, somersaulting and stride tasks - successfully completed - an external power source had to be used to guarantee stability and constant energy charging.

After a series of reformulations, in 2015 the second version was presented to society, characterized by having energy autonomy since it is equipped with a lithium battery on its back. Likewise, the robot has a white cover that partially covers its internal circuits and mechanisms. Boston Dynamics claims that this new Atlas has 75% new parts assembled and that the remaining percentage contains elements of the original robot.

In 2016, the AI expert company presented a new version of the Atlas - known as “Atlas Next Generation” -, designed to move both outdoors and in buildings. The pearl of this new prototype involves two aspects: on the one hand, mobile manipulation and on the other, its expertise in a wide variety of spaces, including snow. Its operation is dual, half electric and half hydraulic.

Another of its peculiarities has to do with its fabulous sensor system that helps it maintain balance and analyze the terrain -it uses GPS navigation data- and manipulate objects, even when they are in motion. This latest version of Atlas is approximately 175 cm tall, weighs 82 kg.

Without a doubt, a masterpiece that highlights the hard work, on the part of experts, to achieve a symbiotic fusion between software and hardware systems. 

X-ray of an AI robot

This curious humanoid has 4 limbs and 28 hydraulically operated joints. Built with parts developed in 3D printers, it stands at a maximum height of 1.50 m high, weighs 89 kg and is illuminated with blue LED lights. It is equipped with two vision systems: a laser rangefinder and stereo cameras, both controlled by a computer. His hands have fine motor skills and his limbs have a total of 28 degrees of freedom, being able to move on uneven terrain and climb independently with his arms and legs.

The locomotor control system of this machine allows it to reach a maximum speed of 2.5 m/s, thanks to the agile interactions facilitated by the algorithms.

Training Atlas

That a team of researchers has decided that a robot learns to solve feats through typically human movements - such as dance or parkour - is intrinsically linked to one of its objectives: to create a humanoid capable of offering an infinite number of solutions that act as a solid support that meets human needs.

For this reason, Boston Dynamics engineers took the trouble to create intensive parkour courses to “teach” Atlas – with the inevitable help of AI – a series of new movements based on human behavior. 2 prototypes and several film cameras participated in this training, ready to document each part of the testing.

In this sense, simulation is a primary development tool to evaluate new behaviors and also to ensure that new software changes do not negatively affect existing capabilities.  

The feat consisted of arranging a set of plywood panels in front of the robots, establishing a specific route. The first of them ran on the panels, jumped a gap, went up and down stairs along the way, while the second robot jumped on a balance beam and followed the same steps but in reverse. They both landed with two perfectly synchronized backflips. 

After the humanoids completed their backflips, one was supposed to swing their arm like a major league pitcher at the end of the game, a move dubbed "Cha-Ching." However, a tiny detail occurred for most mortals, but striking for observers: the protagonist moved his arm but also stumbled a little.

Don't panic! In short, each of these iterations are really important to make the various modifications that meet the final objective.

Something important to highlight in this sense has to do with the fact that based on the latest updates to the imposed algorithms, a milestone was achieved by the development team: that Atlas' movements are driven by its perception, that is, the robot adapts its behaviors based on what it sees.

Which means that engineers no longer need to pre-program jumping movements for all possible platforms and gaps that the robot can encounter. Instead the team creates a smaller number of template behaviors that can match the environment and execute in real time.

In first person

We well know that robotics is a branch of engineering that has been going strong for many decades. We saw it represented in science fiction films and literature.

There is a common thread between what we have just read and robotics applied to the work routine. A robot at the service of office meetings? Of course yes, and our founder and CEO of Lab9, Alejandro Jatib, confirms it on his trip along the west coast of the United States.

In the offices of the geek collaborative work center par excellence -Hacker Dojo of Silicon Valley- and in the HP offices as well, we can find an extremely useful creation: these are telepresence robots that can be extended from 1 meter to 1.50 meter tall. At the top end they have a screen that does not exceed 10-11 inches in size - similar to a tablet - and a smartphone holder.

The support that leaves the tablet or cell phone still allows these devices to be placed at different viewing angles so that their use is versatile. In this way, the robot is able to move around its environment, avoiding objects and people using anti-collision sensors, 3D cameras and microphones.

Its main task is to achieve a certain “presence” in a collaborative work environment, from a distance. 

That is, those people who, for whatever reason, cannot attend a work meeting or particular event in person, can do so from their home in another part of the world: through an internet connection, they will be able to view everything that happens within the space and move a few meters around, ensuring that the person has their own place there, from a distance.

Something that may sound revolutionary and even unthinkable within the workplace, is a fact and exists.