Goodbye!Boston Dynamics Humanoid Robot Atlas
Reported by the Heart of the Machine
Editor: Zenan
Boston Dynamics Atlas Robotics, from 2013 to 2024.
An era is over.
On April 16, Boston Dynamics posted a new robot video on YouTube, which quickly became a hit as usual, but this time with a different theme.
Today's theme is farewell: the development of the famous humanoid robot Atlas has been put to an end.
"For nearly a decade, Atlas robots have sparked our imaginations, inspired the next generation of roboticists, and crossed technical barriers in the field," said Boston Dynamics. Now it's time for our hydraulic Atlas robot to relax. 」
While it has always been synonymous with leading technology, the 10-year-old Atlas is no longer young as a robot. Boston Dynamics has finally shown its ruthless side to its humanoid robotics research project. That's probably not a bad thing – sometimes, in order to push the limits of what's possible, we have to put our limited energy into something new.
In this video alone, as viewers, we saw a lot of previously undisclosed footage of humanoid robot movements, as well as quite a few failed attempts at Atlas action.
The history of Atlas is much shorter than this video shows. The Boston Dynamics humanoid robot Atlas can be traced back to a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project called PETMAN (Conservation Integral Test Model). Back in 2009, the project received media coverage. AS PART OF A $26.3 MILLION ARMY CONTRACT, PETMAN WILL BE "THE FIRST ANTHROPOMORPHIC ROBOT TO MOVE DYNAMICALLY LIKE A REAL PERSON." 」
PETMAN was designed to test a set of protective clothing that soldiers use to protect themselves from the harsh conditions of the battlefield. It must be able to move like a human soldier – walking, running, bending, reaching out, crawling forward...... The set needs to be durable in all directions. IT IS SAID THAT IN ORDER TO SIMULATE HUMANS AS ACCURATELY AS POSSIBLE, PETMAN WAS EVEN DESIGNED TO BE ABLE TO "SWEAT".
RELATIVE TO OTHER HUMANOID ROBOTS OF THE TIME (THE MOST FAMOUS OF WHICH WAS HONDA'S ASIMO), PETMAN'S MOVEMENT AND BALANCE ABILITIES WERE IMPRESSIVE. It's also memorable that the video that PETMAN showed was in sync with the singer's movements on MTV of Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive," which may have been unintentional. Either way, DARPA was pleased with the performance of all of these robots and chose Boston Dynamics to build another humanoid robot for the DARPA Robotics Challenge.
The initial success encouraged the developers at Boston Dynamics, and in 2013, the company officially named the humanoid robot Atlas. Since then, every six months or so, Boston Dynamics has released a new Atlas video of robots running, jumping, dancing or parkouring, and with its powerful hydraulics, it impresses us every time.
This robot demonstrates the excellent balance of a bipedal robot, but there are always some extreme situations that can cause it to lose its balance. At this time, they can also fall gracefully, thus avoiding damage to the body. From toddlers with power lines attached to the field to back-up batteries, we've seen Atlas lead the way in robotics over the years.
In 2014, the Atlas robot demonstrated standing on one leg and maintaining balance.
By 2019, the new generation of Atlas was already doing difficult gymnastic moves.
This humanoid robot can do things that humans could only do before, such as moving boxes and backflipping. As of February of this year, Boston Dynamics is still showcasing new features for Atlas. As we can see in some of the videos, Atlas seems to be ready for practical use.
When it comes to dynamic performance, there's really nothing better than the hydraulically driven Atlas, and it may be arguably still not.
The original renders of Atlas, followed by four generations of physical robots.
It has been speculated that the Atlas' retirement may have been due to the fact that its hydraulically driven route was no longer up to date.
Boston Dynamics' Atlas is known to use hydraulics to drive individual joints, while latecomers like the Tesla Optimus mostly use electric drives. On humanoid robots, there are some advantages to taking a hydraulic drive.
The hydraulic drive is to generate high-pressure liquid through a liquid compression pump, which in turn generates force on the workmanship of the output mechanism. This allows the robot to be very powerful (high torque density) and based on the hydraulically driven design, the compression pump can be driven far away from the actuator and only one is needed, because the liquid potential energy can be easily transmitted through the pipe to multiple remote ends.
But on the other hand, the energy efficiency of the hydraulic system is not high, and the system also has shortcomings such as a large number of parts, a complex manufacturing process, and a relatively slow response speed. Due to the complexity of the hydraulic system, the Atlas also experienced oil leaks from time to time (which can also be seen in the latest video). When considering commercialization, hydraulically driven robots also need to overcome challenges such as maintenance and high manufacturing costs.
Disadvantages: The energy efficiency of the hydraulic system is not high, the number of system parts is large, the maintenance and repair of the hydraulic system is troublesome, the response speed is not fast, the servo controller of the hydraulic pressure requires an independent motor servo pump, as well as an independent force sensor, the production technology requirements are extremely high, for the hydraulic actuator with a very high degree of integration, the usual processing methods and equipment are not satisfied, metal 3D printing must be used, the cost of development and production is extremely high, due to the complexity of the hydraulic system, Atlas From time to time, there are also bursting cylinders and oil leaks, and hydraulic robots need a dedicated hydraulic maintenance team for maintenance, which is expensive to manufacture and difficult to commercialize and productize.
Now, we don't know why Boston Dynamics is saying "goodbye to the hydraulically driven Atlas," which may mean that Boston Dynamics has abandoned the hydraulically driven route and embraced electric motors.
But looking at the company's history in the past, as well as the current state of robotics, a few things are clear:
Boston Dynamics has been fairly explicit in its pursuit of commercialization;
Complex hydraulic robots are not product-friendly;
Boston Dynamics' hydraulic- and motor-driven, hydraulic- and motor-driven Spot robot dog has been a huge success;
All-electric commercial humanoid robots do seem to be the way robotics is headed.
Atlas is retired today, is it not far off to have a brand new humanoid robot?
References:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/boston-dynamics-atlas-retires
HTTPS://TechCrunch.com/2024/04/16/Atlas-Shrugged-Boston-Dynamics-Retires-ITS-Humanoid-Robot/