Atlas, the humanoid robot that dazzled fans for more than a decade with its outdoor runs, awkward dances and backwards stunts, has gone dark. In other words, he is retiring.
On Wednesday, Boston Dynamics, the company that created it, announced the arrival of the next generation of humanoid robots: an all-electric robot (also called Atlas) for real-world commercial and industrial applications.
For anyone worried about what would happen to the bipedal hydraulic machine (a robot house? a junkyard? a storefront?) that was created for research purposes, the company had an answer. A spokesman, Nikolas Noel, said retirement would mean Atlas would be moved to its “robot retirement home,” meaning it would be “in the museum in the lobby of our office” with other decommissioned robots.
The old Atlas was used to research whole-body mobility and explore what was possible in robotics, Noel said. It was not designed for commercial use and was first developed as part of a competition to promote the use of robots “in future natural and man-made disasters,” according to the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
“For nearly a decade, Atlas has sparked our imaginations, inspired the next generations of robotics, and broken technical barriers in the field,” Boston Dynamics said in a farewell video posted to social media Tuesday.
“Now it’s time for our Atlas hydraulic robot to relax,” the company said.
The company’s farewell video captured the muscular 6-foot-2 machine in action over the years. That included taking a walk through a grassy field, jumping on boxes (or picking up 10-pound boxes), walking carefully on a bed of rocks, and swinging awkwardly.
But the video also features some hiccups, including the robot’s frequent stumbles, such as falling onto platforms, rolling down a hill, and losing hydraulic fluid from its leg inside a lab.
The new model has a large round head that swivels completely, is slimmer and can nimbly rise from a horizontal position to a bipedal posture in seconds. His hips seem reversible, so he might be better than us at some yoga poses.
The company’s business models include Spot, an agile four-legged robot, and Stretch, an elongated warehouse platform.
“The new Atlas builds on decades of research and furthers our commitment to delivering the most capable and useful mobile robots that solve today’s industry’s toughest challenges—with Spot, with Stretch, and now with Atlas,” the company wrote in a statement. video post introducing the new robot.
The new model will be used to build “the next generation of automobile manufacturing capabilities” with Hyundai Motor Company, which owns Boston Dynamics.
There were seven upgraded Atlases, each of which was made of aircraft-grade aluminum and titanium and weighed 330 pounds. They were then used as base models by teams competing for a $2 million prize in the challenge. But the final challenge was won by a Korean team that built a robot that could kneel and roll on wheels while performing tasks.
During its training, researchers were tough on Atlas, even throwing weights at it to see how well it responded and adapted to challenges in and out of the lab.