The greeting card for the new year of Boston Dynamics is already viral: a dance to the rhythm of “Do you love me
” by The Contours starring four more than agile robots. These are the most advanced products of the American company (recently purchased by the Korean Hyundai), the result of thirty years of work between military orders and a strong interrelation between the world of industry and research. THE TWO HUMANOIDS
The dance is initiated by “Atlas”, the humanoid robot in its latest version, more agile and light. It is defined by the company as “a research platform designed to overcome the limits of the mobility of your body”. Not commercialized, Atlas is used to understand how far robotics can go in terms of mobility. Besides the mechanics (there are 28 hydraulic joints) and the work on materials (many 3D printed), there is the software part to give balance and agility to the robot. In other videos he is seen doing parkour, jumping a log and performing various stunts. It clearly remembers humans: and another 1.5 meters for 80 kilograms of weight, capable of moving up to 1.5 meters per second. In Altas’ greeting video there are two, often engaged in performing the same moves. “SPOT”, THE INSPECTION ROBOT
The dance of the two humanoids is accompanied by what appears to be their pet. Four legs, yellow, long neck and what actually looks like a beak. And “Spot”, the mobile robot designed for detection, inspection and monitoring. It is already on the market, available in the basic version (“explorer”) at $ 74,500, although the figure goes up exponentially with the various accessories. Capable of carrying 14 kilograms of additional load and remotely controllable via tablet, or programmable to perform missions autonomously, mostly aimed at acquiring data on areas of interest. He too shows great agility. According to the company, “it can capture large amounts of data,” automating “routine inspection activities and data capture in a secure, accurate and frequent manner.”SPACE DREAMS
The applications are also innumerable for him, from the control of territories for the construction sector to public safety uses, up to the energy field, given the interest in this type of systems shown by many oil companies, eager to verify in a way the state of lines and infrastructures is easier. Among the customers of the system is the famous Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology, one of the major NASA research centers based in Pasadena. On the other hand, robots of this type have already been imagined for the exploration of planets and satellites, starting with the Moon. It is no coincidence that the Boston Dynamics motto is more of a suggestion: “Change your mind about what robots can do”. THE WAREHOUSE ROBOT
Apparently minor ambitions have “Handle”, the third protagonist of the video for the wishes. Less attractive in the line, and especially designed for use in warehouses and distribution structures. He has a three-meter arm to “catch” the most distant boxes, capable of loading up to 15 kilograms. He moves on two wheels at a maximum speed of 4 meters per second. And “the mobile robot for moving boxes inside the warehouse”, explains the company. “The small footprint, long reach and handle vision system allow you to unload trucks, load pallets and move boxes throughout the facility.” It should be commercially available starting from 2022. The fourth robotic product, not present in the video, is already available: “Pick”,AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The company never talks about artificial intelligence. In most cases the robots are guided by the operators, while other times they perform operations autonomously. Boston Dynamics admits that this doesn’t really mean “artificial intelligence”. For Spot we speak for example of “athletic intelligence”, in which the robot is able to follow a pre-established path autonomously in front of obstacles, for example by climbing stairs or changing the pace with respect to the ground. “Applications such as stopping an autonomous mission when a person is nearby or responding to voice commands can be added to the robot”, but understanding of the outside world remains “limited”. THE COMPANY
The greeting video summarizes the thirty-year development of the company, founded in 1992 as a spin-off of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by a group of researchers led by Marc Raibert . The turning point in the early 2000s thanks to the work on “BigDog”, the quadrupedal robot commissioned by Darpa, a Pentagon agency that deals with advanced research in the military field. In 2013 it was bought by Google. Four years later by the Japanese holding SoftBank Group and, much more recently (just a few weeks ago) by the Korean Hyundai Motor Company. The headquarters remain in Waltham, Massachusetts.
