Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017 was a day full of news. So much information, in reality, that you might have missed the statement of a back-flipping robot. In less than a moment, the video published by Boston Dynamics inspired screaming emotions from all corners of the world wide web. It is a sin in robotics, some said. It is the start of humankind’s end, chirped other people.
The Atlas robot is explained by its creators as “the planet’s most dynamic humanoid” And its own acrobatic success comes after several iterations and what may have been countless thousands of hours. Atlas is among nine robots at the Boston Dynamics household. Siblings include Position, the four-legged model that is deer-like in its moves, and Manage, that includes both arms and wheels and seemingly takes inspiration from your Wheelers from the 1985 movie .
The robotics community fulfilled an older version of Atlas during a robot contest sponsored by DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which will be an arm of the U.S. government. DARPA announced the contest in April of 2012. The goal was to inspire teams to utilize a humanoid robot to successfully solve problems made in man-made or natural disasters. DARPA commissioned Boston Dynamics to create Atlas for the contest. Even though DARPA sponsored it, Boston Dynamics possesses the intellectual property rights. Competing robots needed to finish seven tasks.
New Atlas, the back-flipping version, is shorter and lighter than the model used at the DARPA contest. Instead of 6 feet 2 inches, then the new Atlas is about 5 ft tall – rather than 330 lbs., it is about 165 lbs. The video shows a version that’s untethered, meaning that it works on battery power rather than being plugged into a stationary power source.
Boston Dynamics did not respond to several requests for comment.
Douglas Stephen is a research associate at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition at Florida. He was about the IMHC’s group for the DARPA contest. Stephen reported this brand new version of Atlas is incredibly remarkable due to the way it is made. Atlas utilizes hydraulics, that is part of what makes it so strong, Stephen explained. Usually that means a great deal of hoses to run hydraulic fluid. This version uses technology that incorporates tubing at the fabric itself, making it more comfortable and more compact.
But let’s get to the actual question. In what natural catastrophe scenario would a robot have to perform a back-flip?
“A robot does not have to do a back-flip,” Stephen said. “However a robot carrying out a back-flip is truly impressive. It is proof that we are getting much closer to being in a position to design robots that are equal to or better than an average individual.”
So as to have a robot nearer to being “greater than an average individual,” Stephen says a little tough love is demanded. You will find hundreds of videos where Boston Dynamics staff members have been shown pushing, kicking and hitting on the robots together with hockey sticks. It is not unkind, but Stephen explained. There’s no artificial intellect. It is just a computer with legs. And often the easiest approach to check the monitor’s balance, flexibility and recovery skills is to just give it a good hard shove.
The purpose of constructing a robot to act like a human is to not frighten humanity, Stephen explained. The purpose is to produce a machine that functions in a human world.
“If you’re able to produce a robot that has the exact dimensions and shape, exactly the same dexterity as a individual,” he explained, “you open up the possibilities of everything you can do with robot”
As for whether the machines have been coming for us:
“No,” Stephen said. “Not any time soon.”
Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, see http://www.npr.org/.
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source http://www.millermachine.net/back-flipping-robot-can-be-a-giant-leap-for-robot-kind/
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