Robotics  

Go face-to-face with the world’s most advanced robots and get a rare look inside Boston Dynamics’ top secret lab, never before open to the public...until now. 

For years now, the robot creations of Boston Dynamics have been seen by huge numbers of people on YouTube. Now, thanks to virtual reality and the team at Within, you can get close to being beside ATLAS, Alpha Dog and Spot Mini without buying a plane ticket.

"The dream is building machines that can go anywhere a person or animal can go."

In "Hello, Robot," director David Gelb presents, the premiere episode of the new  VR series, "The Possible," taking you inside the never before seen labs of Boston Dynamics. The Possible, is a new virtual reality series that explores groundbreaking technology.

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Along with excellent 360 video footage of the robots, "Hello, Robot," also features Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert discussing his journey in creating the company. "The dream is building machines that can go anywhere a person or animal can go," explains Raibert. "That's how I see the future."

"We like to think that we can change people's ideas of what robots can do," he says. Viewing the biologically inspired Boston Dynamics robots in VR may open your eyes too.

Download the Within app here to watch Hello, Robot for yourself. Within supports all major headsets, including Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive, Sony Playstation VR, and Google Daydream. To get started experiencing our ever-growing roster of content, just download the app for iPhone or Android today.

SOURCE  With.in

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Humanoid Robots  

Four-legged Boston Dynamics robots are well known for their ability to maintain balance in uneven terrain. Now, the same feat has been achieved by researchers using the humanoid robot, ATLAS. Check out the astonishing video!

The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) Robotics Lab in Pensacola, Florida has developed a system by which a Boston Dynamics ATLAS robot can navigate across a series of different surfaces of different sizes and geometries.

As the video below shows, even masonry blocks that have been turned on their sides and placed at various angles in a course present little challenge to ATLAS.

"It vastly extends the set of environments a robot can traverse."

"After a step is taken, the robot explores the new contact surface by attempting to shift the center of pressure around the foot," the researchers stated in a paper that details the walking technique. "The available foothold is inferred by the way in which the foot rotates about contact edges and/or by the achieved center of pressure locations on the foot during exploration."

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• Boston Dynamics Has Created The Most Human Humanoid Robot Yet 
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The robot has has no prior knowledge of the terrain laid out in front of it. ATLAS tests the surface one foot at a time, shifting its weight around in the process and finally applying it to the supported foothold. The process is supported by angular momentum provided by the robot’s upper body as the humanoid robot executes some of the more difficult steps.

The project is one of a series of bipedal walking projects being undertaken by the institute.

"The ability to walk on unexpected partial footholds greatly increases the robustness of a robot when employed in cluttered environments," state the researchers. "In addition it vastly extends the set of environments a robot can traverse...In the future, we hope to improve the balancing capabilities of our robot by improving our control algorithms and state estimation and by applying the algorithms to robots with higher joint velocity limits."

SOURCE  DRCihmcRobotics

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Robotics  

Boston Dynamics founder and CEO Marc Raibert got interviewed by TechCrunch’s Brian Heater at the Disrupt conference recently. The two of them spent some time commenting on a video of the company’s various robots over the years.

“We want to make our robots friendly,” Boston Dynamics founder and CEO Mark Raibert told the audience at Disrupt. “Our 250-pound robots — nobody wants to get near them.”

Related articles

• ATLAS Just Keeps on Learning 
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The company's SpotMini robot can walk around interior spaces and is being programmed for more domestic tasks, compared with its more military-inspired big brothers. Raibert mentions that this is part of Boston Dynamics being acquired by Google.

"It is true that we have wound down the government work over the course of about a year and a half or so, since we were acquired by Google," Raibert explains. Now he says, "We are more open to the broad range of possible applications."

When asked about the rumors that Google is looking to sell Boston Dynamics, Raibert didn’t really answer. “I’ve heard the rumors, that’s about all I can say,” he said. He does say that his company's progress since the acquisition has been incredible.

"Mobility, dexterity and perception are the key ingredients, and when they are mature, I think robots will be incredibly useful," states Raibert. 

SOURCE  Tech Crunch

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Humanoid Robots  

Boston Dynamics' ATLAS robot continues to challenge robot developers. In a new example, researchers from Florida's IHMC have managed to train the humanoid robot to balance on one foot on a very narrow piece of wood. 

Our readers will probably remember the DARPA Robotics Challenge last year with a smile, recalling the often humorous falls and fails of the humanoid robots in the competition, at even the seemingly simplest of tasks.

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Well, researchers at The Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC) Robotics Lab seem to want to learn from that experience, and prevent it from happening to their robot in the future. They have taught their Boston Dynamics' ATLAS robot, a new skill: balancing on one foot on a narrow piece of plywood for almost a full thirty seconds.

ATLAS is a pretty proficient balancer it would seem, but probably more interesting is the humanlike way it tries to regain its balance at the end of the video. In a fraction of a second, the robot leans its weight to the side, rotates its torso, and shifts its foot placement—just as you or I might do in the same situation.

According to the researchers, "This video was recorded during a lucky run, usually the robot is not able to maintain balance for this long."

This is a level of coordination is impressive considering ATLAS was only learning how to stand up a few months ago.

SOURCE  IHMC

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Robotics  

The company famous for internet robot videos is at it again. In the latest release, Boston Dynamics introduces SpotMini, an electric robot dog with a very handy arm for a head. Like all of the company's bots, SpotMini can take a fall, but it can also do some very useful chores around the house.

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They are always among the highest rated on-line videos, even if there is little business development behind them, but Boston Dynamics has once again brought out a new video featuring an incredible robot. SpotMini is a new smaller and quieter version of the Spot robot. At 55 lbs, SpotMini is all-electric bot and runs for about 90 minutes on a single charge, depending on the task.
We've known about the company building arms for heads on their robots for a while now, but now with SpotMini the picture is getting a lot clearer. SpotMini can be seen in the video undertaking tasks like loading the dishwasher, and delivering a beverage with the 10 lb appendage.

As the video shows, the head-arm also comes in handy if someone has carelessly left banana peels in SpotMini's path. The nimble robot uses the tool to boost itself back to its feet and carry on with its duties.

"SpotMini is one of the quietest robots we have ever built," according to Boston Dynamics. "It has a variety of sensors, including depth cameras, a solid state gyro (IMU) and proprioception sensors in the limbs. These sensors help with navigation and mobile manipulation."

Boston Dynamics says that SpotMini completes some of the tasks in the video autonomously, while others have an operator for high-level guidance.

"SpotMini is one of the quietest robots we have ever built."

At the end of the video, a more consumer-ready version of the robot is also shown. With well-designed covers and a futuristic-looking white color scheme, SpotMini looks like it jumped right out of a science fiction movie.

The impressive video is perhaps a marketing tool, helping parent company Alphabet (Google) to sell Boston Dynamics. Google acquired Boston Dynamics in late 2013 as part of a spree of acquisitions in the field of robotics. Since the formation of Alphabet, the direction of the company's robotics initiatives have been in question.

SOURCE  Boston Dynamics

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Robotics  

Boston Dynamics just released another incredible video featuring its latest version of the humanoid robot, ATLAS that was initially developed for the DARPA Robotics Challenge. The company says this version is the “next generation” of their humanoid, but the technological leap they have made is far from incremental.

Boston Dynamics, the Google-owned company that is famous for creating Big Dog, robot cheetahs and the ATLAS humanoid robot has released a new version of their bipedal marvel. Designed to operate outdoors and inside buildings, the latest version of ATLAS is specialized for mobile manipulation.

Unlike its much heavier, noisier and slower tethered big brother, this incredibly upgraded model of ATLAS is electrically powered and hydraulically actuated. It uses sensors in its body and legs to balance and LIDAR and stereo sensors in its head to avoid obstacles, assess the terrain, help with navigation and manipulate objects.

Your job is next!

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• Meet DARPA's ATLAS Humanoid Robot 
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This version of Atlas weighs 180 lbs and is about 5' 9" tall, which is about a head shorter than the version of the robot that was used by many teams at last year's DARPA Robotics Challenge.

In the video below, you can watch ATLAS walk through snowy woods untethered, practice at getting a warehouse job, take abuse from a hockey stick wielding boss (that probably won't end well...) pick itself off the floor, and walk out of the Boston Dynamics facility.

Seriously, the gulf between the robots featured in contemporary science fiction like Chappie and the stuff coming out of  Boston Dynamics does not seem that far apart anymore. It is amazing how far the robot has been developed in the past three years!

SOURCE  IEEE Spectrum

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Humanoid Robots  

Boston Dynamics is continuing to work on their humanoid robots, with the conclusion of the DARPA Robotics Challenge. In new footage, their robots can be seen walking in the woods for the first time.

Alphabet (formerly Google) subsidiary, Boston Dynamics, has begun testing one of its humanoid robots outdoors.

Related articles Boston Dynamics' PETMAN Starting To Look Very Human  The Form of a Robotic Mind - Matanya Horowitz  Meet DARPA's ATLAS Humanoid Robot

Marc Raibert, the founder of Boston Dynamics, talked about the research and showed footage (in the video below) of the project during a talk at the recent Fab Lab Conference and Symposium in Cambridge, Mass.

"Out in the world is just a totally different challenge than in the lab, you can’t predict what it’s going to be like."

“Out in the world is just a totally different challenge than in the lab, you can’t predict what it’s going to be like,” said Raibert.

Boston Dynamics has tested their 'Big Dog' and 'Alpha Dog' robots out in the woods before but this is the first video of the humanoid robots outdoors.

The humanoid robot shown is a version of ATLAS, that was featured in the DARPA Robotics Challenge earlier this year. Like other early Boston Dynamics prototypes, the robot is tethered to a power supply, but Raibert claims they are working on a self-powered version.

The higher center of gravity on the robots makes them look a bit drunk in a few shots, but overall the video has the jaw-dropping characteristics of most Boston Dynamics' releases — they look to be very close to nailing it.

SOURCE  Venture Beat

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 Robotics  

Robot makers, Boston Dynamics have released video of their newest creation, a smaller, quieter version of Big Dog, named 'Spot.' The new robot is agile and with electric motors, can be used indoors and outdoors.

Boston Dynamics is the company that is now part of Google responsible for some of the most important robots today, including ATLAS, which is to be used in the DARPA Robotics Challenge. The company first became an Internet sensation with their robot Big Dog, which was a noisy, rugged pack-mule like beast that could recover from a slippery fall on ice, or a kick from a person.

Boston Dynamics' robot dogs, including Spot in front

Now, the company has unveiled Spot, another four-legged robot designed for indoor and outdoor operation.

Spot is electrically powered and hydraulically actuated, so it is much quieter than its older brother. In the video above, Spot sprints past Big Dog running uphill.

Spot and Big Dog

Related articles Boston Dynamic's Big Dog Gets An Arm For A Head  Boston Dynamics' PETMAN Starting To Look Very Human  MIT's Robot Cheetah Making Strides

The robot is also capable of handling stairs with ease, and jogging alongside a person.  In the video, a pair of Spot robots also walk up and down a hill in tandem.

Like his big brother, Spot can be kicked hard, without toppling over. Apparently this test is a big factor for Boston Dynamics' robotic design briefs.

The company hasn't supplied what the proposed use of the robot is yet, apart from entertaining video material, but the operation and abilities of Spot certainly are impressive.

The robot has a sensor head that helps it navigate and negotiate rough terrain, and weighs about 160 lbs, according to the company.

SOURCE  Boston Dynamics

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 DARPA Robotics Challenge  

DARPA has revealed upgrades to the ATLAS robot. The robot was redesigned for DARPA by Boston Dynamics, with the goal of improving power efficiency to better support untethered battery operation. The upgraded robot will be used by up to seven teams competing in the DARPA Robotics Challenge.

When we were first introduced to ATLAS, the humanoid robot developed for the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), it was obvious that a next generation would be needed to untether the bot, and reduce the noise of the hydraulic pumps it used so that people could use the robot more freely. As a platform for intervention in disaster situations, like the earthquake in Fukishima, the robot needed to be more agile and testable in real-world scenarios.

Those changes are now mainly done, as is a total of 75% of ATLAS Unplugged, the latest version of the Boston Dynamics-built robot. Really only the lower legs and feet remain from the original design.

"Basically we have cut the cord.  We have to no longer rely on a safety line on the top."

"ATLAS Unplugged is the upgrade to ATLAS to allow it to run entirely on batteries, and to have it use a wireless communication path and for it not require a safety tether to hold itself up," said Gill Pratt, DRC Program Manager. "Basically we have cut the cord.  We have to no longer rely on a safety line on the top."

According to DARPA, the most significant changes are to the robot’s power supply and pump. ATLAS will now pack an onboard 3.7-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack, with the potential for one hour of “mixed mission” operation that includes walking, standing, use of tools, and other movements. This will drive a new quiet variable-pressure pump that allows for more efficient operation.

“The introduction of a battery and variable-pressure pump into Atlas poses a strategic challenge for teams,” said Pratt,  DRC Program Manager in a press release. “The operator will be able to run the robot on a mid-pressure setting for most operations to save power, and then apply bursts of maximum pressure when additional force is needed. The teams are going to have to game out the right balance of force and battery life to complete the course.”

The robot is also now constructed out of lighter materials.  The inclusion of a battery and a new pump system adds only a modest increase in overall weight with the upgraded robot standing 6-foot-2 (1.88 meters) and weighs 345 pounds (156.5 kg). No word yet if the new battery system will make its way into Boston Dynamics other robots.

Re-sized actuators in the hip, knee, and back now give ALTAS greater leg strength.

Related articles Dennis Hong On Robot Evolution and The DARPA Robotics Challenge  The What, Why, How, Who and When of the DARPA Robotics Challenge  Robot Revolution - Will Machines Surpass Humans?

The re-positioned shoulders and arms will allow for increased work space in front of the robot and let the robot's own cameras view the hands in motion, thus providing additional sensor feedback to the operator.

Soon new electrically actuated lower arms will increase strength and dexterity and improve force sensing.  As the video above describes, this will allow ATLAS to turn a doorknob at the wrist rather than using the shoulder actuator.

Three onboard perception computers will be used for perception and task planning, and a wireless router in the head enables untethered communication. In the event of a failure, a wireless emergency stop allows for safe operation.

Teams should have their new robots to play with by the end of January.

SOURCE  IEEE Spectrum

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 Artificial Intelligence  

According to Google's Eric Schmidt, people have been concerned about machines taking over the world for centuries, and the recent high profile warnings about AI are "misguided."

Eric Schmidt, chief executive at Google says fears over artificial intelligence and robots replacing humans in jobs are “misguided”. He says AI is likely going to make humanity better.

“These concerns are normal,” he said during a talk the Financial Times Innovate America event in New York this week. "Go back to the history of the loom. There was absolute dislocation… but I think all of us are better off with more mechanized ways of getting clothes made."

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Schmidt demonstrated his point by highlighting how economies have prospered over the years: “There's lots of evidence that when computers show up, wages go up and there’s a lot of evidence that people who work with computers are paid more than people without,” he said.

According to Schmidt, people who don’t currently work with computers should learn to do so quickly, saying that the “correct concern is what we're going to do to improve the education systems and incentive systems globally, in order to get people prepared for this new world, so they can maximize their income.”

Schmidt argues that machines are a lot more basic than people think they are. He described an experiment that Google carried out three years ago, which was created to see what an artificial ‘brain’ could learn. 10 million still images were fed into the ‘brain’ - a network of 1,000 computers programmed to soak up information in the same way a human brain does.

“It discovered the concept of ‘cat’,” Schmidt said. “I'm not quite sure what to say about that, except that that's where we are.”

According to many though, Google and other organizations' rapid advances in artificial intelligence are a real threat.  Famously, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have recently put forth multiple statements on the subject. Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time, told the BBC that AI “could spell the end of the human race".

Worth reading Superintelligence by Bostrom. We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 3, 2014

Recently, Google acquired DeepMind a London-based AI start-up that just unveiled a computer prototype that is capable of mimicking specific aspects of the human brain’s activity. DeepMind's system has been shown to be able to play video games in a similar way to humans.

According to a research paper produced by  DeepMind, the computer prototype acts a kind of neural Turing machine, which can access an external memory like a conventional Turing machine. Reportedly it “takes inspiration from both models of biological working memory and the design of digital computers.”

Google now owns Boston Dynamics, makers of the ATLAS humanoid robot

Google has also recently purchased multiple robotics companies, including Nest, Boston Dynamics, Meka and Redwood Robotics which make humanoid robots, and Industrial Perception, a company which has developed computer vision systems and robot arms for loading and unloading trucks. Also, Google has intensively been developing self driving cars for many years now.

DeepMind's Shane Legg said in an interview earlier this year that artificial intelligence is the “number one risk for this century”, and believes it could contribute to human extinction. “Eventually, I think human extinction will probably occur, and technology will likely play a part in this.”

Legg and DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis even made it a condition that Google form an AI ethics board as part of the sale of their company. The board was put in place to ensure the technology is developed safely and in such a way that mitigates the existential risks of AI.

In a recent piece in MIT Technology Review, about Hassabis Tom Simonite writes,

Hassabis’s reluctance to talk about applications might be coyness, or it could be that his researchers are still in the early stages of understanding how to advance the company’s AI software. One strong indicator that Hassabis believes progress toward a powerful new form of AI will be swift is that he is setting up an ethics board inside Google to consider the possible downsides of advanced artificial intelligence. “It’s something that we or other people at Google need to be cognizant of. We’re still playing Atari games currently,” he says, laughing. “But we are on the first rungs of the ladder.”

Hassabis can be seen explaining DeepMind's video game playing AI below:

"Last time I checked, we had the power cord in our hand."

As an at-its-core artificial intelligence company, Schmidt needs to downplay the risks of the technology.  The company's longstanding motto is, “don't be evil.”

In the end though Schmidt is confident humans will have control, saying that if AI somehow took over the human race it would have to happen “behind our backs.” “Last time I checked, we had the power cord in our hand.”


SOURCE  Newsweek, 9 to 5 Google

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 Robotics  

ATLAS, the humanoid robot built for the DARPA Robotics Challenge is cutting the cord.  In new demo videos, the robot is seen walking unattached and carrying heavy loads across a warehouse floor.

Since the initial stages of the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), the Boston Dynamics-built ATLAS robot has been progressing well as the various teams continue to develop it. Where we used to see ATLAS secured to gantries and cranes to save it from unwanted falls, the humanoid robot is now roaming unteatherd (apart from hydraulic and power lines).

The demo above, which was presented at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Hong Kong, shows ATLAS dragging a huge piece of metal around an open space. The project is part of DRC work and was produced by Scott Kuindersma, Frank Permenter, and Russ Tedrake.

The video is significant as it shows that ATLAS can now walk while off-balance. This means the robot could carry various objects. It is beginning to look like a humanoid robot that can do actual work.

In a second video (below), a stereo depth fusion visualization of what ATLAS "sees" is shown.

Related articles Dennis Hong On Robot Evolution and The DARPA Robotics Challenge  Robot Revolution - Will Machines Surpass Humans?  Meet DARPA's ATLAS Humanoid Robot

This video demonstrates the simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM) systems used by the robot. The use of stereo depth fusion using Kintinuous (originally used to build large maps with Kinect data) to a quality which matches LIDAR data. The heightmap shown was used to place the required footsteps a priori while stationary. It also demonstrates the state estimation is provided by a highly tuned estimator developed by MIT. In this case it is running open loop (and not using any laser info). In open loop mode it drifts about 4cm in this total walking motion.




SOURCE  IEEE Spectrum

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 Robotics  

The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal has a theory why Google recently purchased the smart thermostat company Nest for a reported $3.2 billion dollars — because at its core Nest is an artificial intelligence and robotics company.

Alexis Madrigal at The Atlantic has an interesting theory as to why Google recently bought out the smart thermostat maker, Nest for a reported $3.2 billion.  Only last week the valuation of the company was pegged at $2 billion, which at the time was considered staggering.

According to Madrigal, at its core, the Tony Fadell-led Nest is a robotics company.  This aligns the acquisition with the recent others by Google in the robotics industry, including Boston Dynamics and DARPA Robotics Challenge stage champion, Schaft.  In total, over the last few months Google has attained eight top robotics companies.

Andy Rubin, who is heading up the robotics project at Google has not yet said what the company's focus is going to be for robotics.  While some have guessed the company is merely looking to improve automation and assembly robots, the Nest purchase may signal something more.

With Meka Robotics, Redwood Robotics and Industrial Perception technology under his roof, it seems like Rubin is suggesting that Google's creation might be able to move, reach, and grab things like a person. According to "several people with specific knowledge of the project," the robots will likely be used in manufacturing rather than sold to consumers, and might specifically be used in electronics assembly.

Related articles Dennis Hong On Robot Evolution and The DARPA Robotics Challenge  Rodney Brooks on Why We Will Rely on Robots  Towards Intelligent Humanoid Robots

Now with Nest, and its staff of former Apple designers and executives like Yoky Matsuoka, Google may be signalling even more towards the development of humanoid robot systems.  Her dream of creating a robotic tennis player still drives some of the behind-the-scenes thinking at Nest.  She has studied with Rodney Brooks while a student at MIT as well as studying artificial intelligence and neuroscience. Madrigal interviewed Matsuoka in 2012 and she explained why robotics and artificial intelligence are at the heart of Nest's capabilities.

 "The intersection of neuroscience and robotics is about how the human brain learns to do things and how machine learning comes in to augment that," she told Madrigal.  Matsuoka calls this neurobotics.  

This is the picture I constantly come back to. The yin yang between understanding human learning and machine learning and that combination, that intersection, is exactly where I live. Some things, machines shouldn't learn it. We should let people learn it. Because otherwise people are gonna get lazy and never adapt. And that's a bad thing for rehabilitation. If we want them to get better. Machines probably shouldn't do all the things. But at the same time, things humans are really bad at, maybe machines should be learning that for them, ahead of time. Understand exactly how humans are like and then slowly maybe let humans take control back.

Madrigal concludes: "Nest is a cryptorobotics company. It deals in sensing, automation, and control. It may not make a personable, humanoid robot, but it is producing machine intelligences that can do things in the physical world."


SOURCE  The Atlantic

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 Robotics  

Boston Dynamics is working hard on many projects at once, including humanoids for the DARPA Robotics Challenge and the mule-style LS3.  Now they have also created a free-running cat bot that can hit speeds of 16 mph.

WildCat is a four-legged robot being developed to run fast on all types of terrain by Boston Dynamics. So far WildCat has run at about 16 mph on flat terrain using bounding and galloping gaits.

The video above WildCat's best performance so far. WildCat is being developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA's M3 program.

WildCat follows in the footsteps of Big Dog, Alpha Dog and includes hints of the cheetah robot the company also built.

Related articles Boston Dynamic's Big Dog Gets An Arm For A Head  MIT's Robot Cheetah Making Strides  Robot Revolution - Will Machines Surpass Humans?

What is new about the new creation in the video is that the walking robot is not connected to electrical wires, pneumatic hoses or security lines at all.  WildCat is running free.

With the robot still early in its development, the quadruped's powerful motors are extremely loud, but as we've seen with Boston Dynamics' other robots they can dampen the noise later. For now, its work is focused on getting the robot up to speed.  The company has also been awarded major new funding to cut the noise and make their robots more robust.

SOURCE  Boston Dynamics

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 DARPA Robotics Challenge  

The qualifying Track B teams from the DARPA Robotics Challenge have recently received their ATLAS humanoid robots.  The teams, who got to this stage of the competition by proving their strategies on simulated robots, now get to work on the real thing.

The 330 pound Boston Dynamics-made Atlas robots have been delivered to the DARPA Robotics Challenge Track B teams.

Atlas is intended to be a first-responder or rescue robot, working in environments too dangerous for humans.

While Atlas may have the robust body for the task the DARPA challenge participants are working hard to deliver it's brains.

The agency is currently sponsoring a $2 million competition, with seven institutions vying to program Atlas for a real-world test responding to a disaster, scheduled for later this year.

“We’re in the playoffs,” said Michael A. Gennert, director of the robotics engineering program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), one of the teams in the competition.

Also running a team is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “We’re in this to win it,” said Seth Teller, who leads an Atlas programming team at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).

The intra-state competitors underscore how Massachusetts has risen to prominence as a center for robotics research. In addition to Boston Dynamics, other firms from the state include Bedford-based iRobot Corp., maker of the popular Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. IRobot also designed a mechanical hand for Atlas.

DARPA and Boston Dynamics launched Atlas following the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power station in Japan. Plant managers used tracked robots from iRobot to remotely inspect areas too radioactive for humans. But these machines could not reach parts of the facility that were accessible on foot.

“Those robots couldn’t really do much more than look around,” said Teller.

Boston Dynamics cofounder Marc Raibert believes that for moving through rocky or rubble-strewn terrain, robots with legs are the best solution.

Related articles Dennis Hong On Robot Evolution and The DARPA Robotics Challenge  Boston Dynamic's Big Dog Gets An Arm For A Head  The What, Why, How, Who and When of the DARPA Robotics Challenge

“They can go places where cars and wheeled and tracked vehicles can’t go,” Raibert said.

“Many of the places where disasters might occur are places that are designed for people,” Raibert told the Boston Globe. “People can fit in there and maneuver through them.”

So too are the intentions with Atlas, using the same tools as human first responders. A humanoid robot could climb into a car and drive itself to the disaster scene. Once there, it could open doors, climb ladders, turn valves or throw switches, just like a person.

In an early phase of the competition, 26 teams from eight countries wrote software to control a computer simulation of Atlas.

A consortium of Florida universities took first place, but WPI was runner-up and MIT was third. The two Massachusetts schools and five other teams will each get a real Atlas robot and financial support from DARPA.

In December, they’ll go to Homestead, Florids, to compete against each other, and against at least six Track A teams building their own robots from scratch.

“We’re moving from a simulated world where everything is neat and clean to a real physical world, which is apt to be messier,” said Teller.

The top-scoring teams will qualify for the finals, to be held in December of 2014. By then, Boston Dynamics expects to be able to provide a generator module for each Atlas, which will eliminate the currently used tether and allow the robot to walk freely. And again, the machines, controlled only by radio commands and built-in software, will be given the same eight tests, with $2 million for the top performing team.

Despite the high stakes, the various schools have worked together, sharing ideas on solving tough problems. And the WPI and MIT teams seem determined to keep it classy.

“Those guys are great,” R.J. Linton, project director for WPI’s Atlas team, said of his Cambridge rivals.

MIT professor Russ Tedrake praised the Worcester team for beating his squad in the preliminary round. “I think they did an amazing job.”

For Linton, it’s not a matter of money or bragging rights.

“What this is about is pushing technology and advancing the state of the art so we can save people’s lives,” he said.



SOURCE  Boston Globe, IEEE Spectrum, Top Image - Essdras M Suarez/Boston Globe

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