Boston Dynamics’ New Atlas Picks and Packs a Peck of Auto Parts

Mere months after making its debut, Boston Dynamics’ next-generation electic Atlas robot is already hard at work. In a video released Wednesday, the company demonstrated Atlas autonomously picking and placing individual parts between a series of storage bins.

“Atlas uses a machine learning (ML) vision model to detect and localize the environmental fixtures and individual bins,” the company explained in a YouTube video. “The robot uses a specialized grasping policy and continuously estimates the state of manipulated objects to achieve the task.”

“There are no prescribed or teleoperated movements; all motions are generated autonomously online,” Boston Dynamics was also quick to point out in a subtle swipe at Tesla’s recent Optimus bartender debacle, wherein Tesla’s robot was actually controlled by a human operator as it mixed drinks for event attendees. Atlas, on the other hand, “is able to detect and react to changes in the environment (e.g., moving fixtures) and action failures (e.g., failure to insert the cover, tripping, environmental collisions) using a combination of vision, force, and proprioceptive sensors.”

The electric Atlas made its debut in April with the retirement of the older, hydraulic-driven HD Atlas. The new Atlas reportedly exceeds human performance in terms of both strength and flexibility, which you can see in the video above as the robot spins and swivels as it walks back and forth between the bins. It’s not clear, however, if any of the skills Atlas demonstrates in that video are the result of Boston Dynamic’s recent partnership with the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), which seeks to “accelerate the development of general-purpose humanoid robots.”

Atlas is not the only humanoid robot being put to work, especially in factory settings. In February 2024, Figure Robotics inked an agreement with BMW to begin testing its humanoid robot models, the 01 and 02, at the automaker’s expansive Spartanburg assembly plant. The robots are tasked with moving bins of panels and parts around the plant’s auto body department.

Agility Robotics, on the other hand, has had its Digit robot hauling boxes of Spanx products around GXO Logistics warehouses for nearly a year. Agility has also teamed with Amazon for use in the online retailer’s distribution centers, rotely moving empty bins from a series of shelves over to a distant conveyor belt. Boston Dynamics has not said when Atlas will officially enter the workforce as a commercial product, as its quadrupedal Spot and Stretch robotic arm already have.

Source: Boston Dynamics (YouTube)