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When the inevitable robot uprising occurs, and it is inevitable, we humans will no one to blame but ourselves, and Boston Dynamics in particular.
For years now, Boston Dynamics has been terrifying us with things like robot dogs who can take bullets, robot police dogs patrolling universities, and robots that can do backflips and parkour.
It was rumored last year that the latter robot, a humanoid creature named Atlas, was finally about to be put out to pasture.
But not before one last hair-raising video in which it showed how it could scale scaffolding with ease.
Bye, bye, Atlas. (Or so we thought.)
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), Atlas is now back and more intimidating than ever.
“This week we announced the retirement of our hydraulic Atlas and unveiled what comes next — a fully electric Atlas robot designed for real-world applications,” Boston Dynamics wrote in a press release. “The next generation of the Atlas program builds on decades of research and furthers our commitment to delivering the most capable, useful mobile robots solving the toughest challenges in industry today: with Spot, with Stretch, and now with Atlas.
If that doesn’t frighten you, how about this?
“The electric version of Atlas will be stronger, with a broader range of motion than any of our previous generations,” the press release continues. “For example, our last generation hydraulic Atlas (HD Atlas) could already lift and maneuver a wide variety of heavy, irregular objects; we are continuing to build on those existing capabilities and are exploring several new gripper variations to meet a diverse set of expected manipulation needs in customer environments.”
Still not terrified?
“We designed the electric version of Atlas to be stronger, more dexterous, and more agile,” Boston Dynamics added. “Atlas may resemble a human form factor, but we are equipping the robot to move in the most efficient way possible to complete a task, rather than being constrained by a human range of motion. Atlas will move in ways that exceed human capabilities.”
There. That ought to do it.