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How did the Atlas robot learn to do acrobatic stunts, unbearable for an ordinary person?

Everyone admires the tricks that the Atlas robot does: it does a backflip (November 2017), then it does parkour - jumps up huge cubes (October 2018), then it dances a waltz - somersaults, jumps and turns in the air (September 2019 )

What will be next? If you didn’t see his tricks, then be sure to watch the video compilation on the PRO Robots channel:


Where did the Atlas robot come from?


It all started back in 1980, when Marc Raibert, founded the “Leg Laboratory” at Carnegie Melone University (CMU), and since 1986 has continued at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He started with simple self-balancing robots, and on the one hand they looked very technological for that time and very funny for our time.

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In 1992, Mark founded the company Boston Dynamics and went on: in 2005 the BigDog robot ordered by the US military agency DARPA was released, and in February 2016 they showed the Atlas robot. In 2013, Google bought the company, but sold it to the Japanese conglomerate Soft Bank in 2017, as I did not see in the near future commercialization of the company's developments. In my opinion, Google hurried, because Already at the end of 2019, Boston Dynamics began selling their SpotMini robots and even set up their mass production.

Atlas Robot is the most dynamic robot on earth. Let's see why?


Firstly,


Atlas has one of the most compact mobile hydraulic systems in the world. Special engines, valves, and a compact hydraulic powertrain allow Atlas to deliver high power to any of the 28 hydraulic couplings for impressive moving performance. In general, Boston Dynamics itself develops many units for robots, because no one does analogs.

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Secondly,


Atlas's advanced control system provides a very diverse and flexible movement, while the algorithms work through complex dynamic interactions that take into account the entire body of the robot and the environment for planning movements. For example, a robot uses hands to balance the body in the same way as a human. The maximum speed of the Atlas is 1.5 m / s or 5.4 km / h, which is comparable to the speed of a person walking.

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Now an upper-level interface has been written that allows you to control the robot using macro commands (for example, run, sit down, take a step, etc.), which are already converted into micro actions and limb algorithms to ensure these movements. This has increased the likelihood of performing tricks from 10-20% to 80%. By the way, the robot control system is based on the Robotic Operating System (ROS - Robotics Operating System), and Internet extensions are written in C ++ and Python.

Thirdly,


The atlas uses 3D-printed parts to provide the optimum strength-to-weight ratio needed for jumping and somersaults. With a robot height of 1.5 m, it weighs only 80 kg., Which is very small for such a robot. The first version of the Atlas weighed 200 kg.

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, ?


Despite the complexity of the algorithms that process the movement of the robot, the Atlas is completely controlled from the remote control or programmed in advance, which of course is far from our idea of ​​autonomous robots. Atlas does not have any artificial intelligence (AI), although Boston Dynamics is already working on these algorithms and is looking for AI specialists. By the way, they can get a job if you look at vacancies on the official website. But even if a company integrates AI robots into a robot, it will be highly specialized and, again, will be far from our idea of ​​movie robots.

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Also, the robot does not talk and does not respond to voice commands, which makes it, at least, not modern, because The trend for voice control and communication with robots is clearly visible recently.

But the most important thing is that there is no real application of the robot yet. Yes, he can drag boxes, but do we need a million dollar loader? Yes, he may patrol the territory in the future, but again, how many guards and how many years can be hired for this amount? Here lies the main problem - the ratio of the utility of the robot and its price. If the developers solve this problem, then, of course, the Atlas robot will have an enchanting future.

And what application would you find for the Atlas robot? Write in the comments.

Looking forward to the future, Alexander Baykin, author of the PRO Robots YouTube blog .

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