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Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this week (5 January), the product version of the Atlas is the latest iteration of the agile machine, which has incorporated some of the most cutting-edge robotics technologies and techniques over its 13-year development.
Being built at the company’s Boston headquarters, the latest Atlas is designed to be an “enterprise-grade humanoid robot that can perform a wide array of industrial tasks, from material handling to order fulfilment,” an announcement said.
“The robot learns new tasks quickly, adapts to dynamic environments, lifts heavy loads and works autonomously with minimal supervision. It performs at a consistent, reliable pace and does not need to stop even when its battery power runs low – it will autonomously navigate to a charging station, swap out its own batteries and get right back to work.”
The machine can be controlled in three different ways: autonomous mode, teleoperated or using a tablet ‘steering’ interface. “Once a single Atlas robot learns a new task, that task can immediately be replicated across the entire fleet of robots,” the announcement added.
It has 56 degrees of freedom, fully rotational joints, a 2.3-metre reach and can lift up to 50kg. It is also reportedly extremely water-resistant and can operate at temperatures from -20° to 40°C. Safety features include human detection and fenceless guarding.
“This is the best robot we have ever built,” said Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter. “Atlas is going to revolutionise the way industry works, and it marks the first step toward a long-term goal we have dreamed about since we were children – useful robots that can walk into our homes and help make our lives safer, more productive and more fulfilling.”
Hyundai Motor Group, Boston Dynamics’ majority shareholder, is preparing to deploy tens of thousands of Boston Dynamics robots in its own manufacturing facilities, including dog-like Spot robots for industrial inspection. Hyundai also recently announced a $26bn investment in its US operations, including plans to build a new robotics factory capable of producing 30,000 robots per year.
Boston Dynamics also announced a new partnership with Google DeepMind, which aims to integrate DeepMind foundation models into Atlas to give the robot greater cognitive capabilities.
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