Humanoid
Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid has moved from laboratory demonstrations to performing real work on the factory floor, a milestone that signals how rapidly artificial intelligence is pushing humanoids into industrial settings. The development matters for the humanoid sector because it shows a legged robot operating autonomously on tasks that would have seemed implausible just a few years ago.
For decades, engineers have tried to build robots that look and act like humans, and rapid advances in AI are now bringing those machines out of the lab and onto the factory floor. As fears grow that AI will displace workers, a global race is underway to develop humanoid robots capable of performing human work. Competitors named in the source include Tesla, startups backed by Amazon and NVIDIA, and state-owned Chinese companies. Waltham, Mass.-based Boston Dynamics, valued at over $1 billion, is among the humanoid leaders with its Atlas robot; South Korean automaker Hyundai owns an 88% stake in the company, and its massive auto plant is described as arguably the most advanced in the world, where more than 1,000 robots work alongside nearly 1,500 humans lifting, stamping, and welding parts.
Atlas confidently helps sort roof racks for the assembly line without human intervention. It operates autonomously; many roboticists would have considered this insane five or six years ago.
Atlas stands 175 cm (68.8 in.) tall and weighs 90 kg (198.4 lb.). Its development is led by Zach Jackowski, who holds two degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT and whose mission is to transform the robot into a productive worker on the factory floor. The contrast with the past is stark: in 2021, Atlas was a bulky, hydraulic robot that could only run and jump and relied on algorithms written by engineers. The next-generation Atlas has a sleek, all-electric body and runs on cutting-edge NVIDIA chips, making it intelligent enough to autonomously perform what the source calls incredible stunts.
Scott Kindersma, who led the robotics research department at Boston Dynamics before moving to Google DeepMind, explained that modern robots have learned to master movements until recently considered too complex for a machine — largely due to how these robots learn. The source frames the shift as one in which humanoids with AI become helpers rather than enemies, with Atlas already sorting roof racks for the assembly line without human intervention.
Source: The Robot Report