Boston Dynamics presented the newest generation of its Atlas humanoid robot. For the occasion, the company took the opportunity to make a small tackle to Elon Musk, whose company Tesla has launched into robotics in recent years.
It's a seemingly innocuous tweet, but it certainly made those who follow robotics news smile. Wednesday April 17, the X account (ex-Twitter) of Boston Dynamics presented his new robot, with a short video. Accompanying this, a brief message: “ We promise this is not a person in a wetsuit. »
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This little sentence is in truth a wink – some would probably say a little tackle – to Elon Musk, who in recent years has opened a whole new project with Tesla: that of building humanoid robots, in addition to manufacturing electric cars. This project was announced in the summer of 2021, during a Tesla AI Day conference.
A fake Tesla robot on stage
At the time, it turns out that the American company did not have a prototype to present. From then on, in the absence of having a real robot on stage, it was a person disguised in a costume who put on the show, performing a small choreography. Fun, but light years away from what Boston Dynamics was already doing at the time.
To get an idea of what this company was already doing, we can go back to this video shared at the end of 2020: we saw a humanoid robot, equipped with its own internal battery, performing a dance. The machine ran, jumped, wiggled, changed direction, turned, etc. In doing so, we could see the robot's advances in terms of balance and agility.
Since then, Tesla has progressed. A first real machine, although imperfect, was shown in October 2022. It was still far from matching the creations of Boston Dynamics. For example, it had to rely on an external power supply. Subsequently, Tesla showed another more advanced version in May 2023, followed by another model in December 2023.
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The all-new Atlas robot from Boston Dynamics
Enough to compete with Boston Dynamics, which is one of the most cutting-edge companies in this area? Perhaps it is pretentious to say this today, especially since the new version of Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot, Atlas, has given a small glimpse of its new abilities of movement and movement.
In particular, the machine can visibly perform a complete rotation at the level of its neck and the joints connecting the legs to the hips. The same goes for the trunk and thighs, which can reorient themselves depending on the direction of movement of the robot. Visually too, this new Atlas is very different from the old one.
The presentation of this new Atlas comes at a time when the old model is being retired. Boston Dynamics has also published a sort of video tribute to show everything that it was possible to accomplish with him. And also to show all the steps he was able to take over time, first with clumsiness, then with skill.
This old model, which was launched in the 2010s, demonstrated its ability to maintain balance in an uncomfortable situation, to move on uneven terrain, to do somersaults, to run, to bend the knees, to dynamically overcome obstacles and to do — and sometimes fail — all kinds of additional actions.
“ The electric version of Atlas will be more robust and have a wider range of movements than any previous generation “, promises Boston Dynamics. “ We designed the electric version of Atlas to be stronger, more dexterous and more agile », Adds the company, which promises that this generation will go even further.
“ Atlas will move in ways that exceed human capabilities,” the company warns, without being “limited by the range of human movement.” » There is no doubt that the company will feature them in videos over the years. It remains to be seen how Tesla will change things with its own Optimus robot.