"Goodbye, Atlas. "On April 16, Boston Dynamics uploaded a video of the robot Atlas. After demonstrating Atlas's falling stance as it challenges a variety of difficult maneuvers, Boston Dynamics announced the retirement of its hydraulically driven bipedal humanoid robot, Atlas.
However, less than 24 hours after the release of this sad farewell video that caused countless netizens, Boston Dynamics announced the launch of its newly developed electric Atlas. Since its debut in 2013, the Atlas has attracted attention for its unique design and highly flexible movement capabilities, becoming a global bellwether for humanoid robots.
Why did Boston Dynamics "suddenly" abandon hydraulic drive and switch to all-electric routes? Some analysts pointed out that this move means that Boston Dynamics wants to be more commercial. Humanoid robots are one of the hottest tracks right now, and the addition of Boston Dynamics has made the crowded track even more competitive. But it's not a bad thing for consumers, and it may mean that humanoid robots are not far off in their homes.
The retirement of the Hydraulic Atlas marked the end of an era. Entering the era of all-electric robots, the new electric Atlas still makes people's expectations full. Boston Dynamics revealed that the next-generation Atlas is based on decades of research and development, "and we have never lost sight of our commitment to building the most powerful and practical mobile robots in the industry today to solve the toughest problems." ”
The "lonely brave" on the hydraulic robot track
Named after the Greek god who lifted the sky, Atlas is a robot "guy" over 1.8 meters tall with 28 hydraulically driven joints all over his body. Since its inception, it has been talked about for its iconic moves such as forward rolls, front flips, slow handstands, and 360-degree mid-air turns.
"When Boston Dynamics released the Atlas 10 years ago, everyone was blown away, no one else could do it at the same level, and there was no follower behind it, and it was the only company on this track that was striving for it. Fan Chunhui, deputy director of the Robot Engineering Center of the 21st Institute of China Electronics Technology, said.
After the Atlas came out, every six months or so, Boston Dynamics released a new video documenting Atlas's growth like a child. From steady walking on gravel at the beginning, to backflips, to parkour triple jumps and other coordinated movements, Atlas has refreshed the limits of the robot's athletic ability time and time again.
These ultra-high athletic capabilities of the Atlas are provided by a hydraulic drive system. Because of the high torque density, hydraulic pressure can make the robot very powerful, but it also has disadvantages such as a large number of parts, a complex manufacturing process, a relatively slow response speed, and low safety. "Generally speaking, choosing a hydraulic drive is tantamount to abandoning the civilian market. Fan Chunhui said.
"The reason Boston Dynamics turned to power was simple, electricity and money. Yue Qiang, product director of Feixi Robot, said, "Electricity is the trend, and it is also the key to reducing costs." ”
In recent years, the development of electric drive technology has advanced by leaps and bounds. Yan Weixin, an associate researcher at the Institute of Robotics of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, introduced that in terms of control frequency, electric drive is much higher than hydraulic drive; from the perspective of output torque, the gap between the two is getting smaller and smaller; and the comprehensive cost of electric drive is much smaller than that of hydraulic drive, the estimated cost of an Atlas is more than one million US dollars, and the target price of Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus (Optimus Prime) is about 20,000 US dollars.
An important step towards practical application of humanoid robots
Despite having a number of popular products such as Atlas and robot dog Spot, Boston Dynamics' development path has not been smooth. In 1992, Boston Dynamics spun off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and remained independent. It was acquired by Google in 2014, sold to SoftBank Group in 2017, and acquired by South Korea's Hyundai in 2020. The key reason for the several changes of ownership is that the company has not been profitable so far.
Yan Weixin said that the movement posture of the humanoid robot is highly bound to the application scenario, and there is no need for a robot that can turn his heels on the assembly line, but the price is the key to determining whether the buyer is willing to pay for it.
So far, the development of humanoid robots has gone through four stages: the first stage is the initial walking stage of the full-scale machine represented by the WABOT-1 built by Waseda University in Japan, the second stage is the ice-breaking period of highly integrated system capabilities represented by Honda humanoid robots, etc., the third stage is the technological breakthrough development stage characterized by strong composite movement ability, Atlas is the representative of this stage, and the fourth stage is the industrialization landing stage represented by Tesla's "Optimus Prime".
Yan Weixin believes that the product needs to have three elements: first, it meets the application scenarios of humanoid robots, second, the product has sufficient cost performance, and third, the embodied intelligence has developed to a certain stage. "Boston Dynamics' move can be seen as a shift in the company's development course. He said.
The transition from hydraulic drive to all-electric is an important step towards practical use for Atlas robots. This time, Boston Dynamics placed special emphasis on application scenarios such as "laboratory, factory, and daily life", which corroborated Yan Weixin's judgment.
Leaning over after touching the ceiling, can you reproduce the "backflip of ten years ago"?
As one of the hottest tracks at the moment, the electric humanoid robot track is already crowded with well-known companies such as Tesla, Nvidia, Figure, 1X and Apptronik. The addition of Boston Dynamics, a "powerful faction", has doubled the pressure on some "players" who have already entered the game.
Although Boston Dynamics released a demo video of the all-new electric Atlas that is only 39 seconds long, it has already brought something new to the world of humanoid robotics. One of the most striking things was the way it got up as it lay on the ground, with Atlas's legs bent at his knees, then his legs twisted in an unhuman posture to stand up without the support of his arms. It turns out that lying down is just a "feint", in fact, it changes position through clever leg rotation.
Fan Chunhui said that at present, there is no unified design paradigm for humanoid robots, and each company is making personalized customization according to the use scenario, in order to win in future landing applications. On this track, Chinese companies have emerged, and the products of manufacturers such as Fourier, Yushu, Zhiyuan, Xiaomi, and Xiaopeng have entered the critical stage before mass production.
Compared with the hydraulic system, in recent years, domestic "three electric (battery, motor and electronic control system)" companies have been emerging, and the industrial chain has been quite mature. Yan Weixin remembers that ten years ago, it was difficult to find a special valve company, and now there are countless electronic control overall solution companies in the Yangtze River Delta alone, and each has its own unique technology. The advancement of electronic control technology has made the robot more accurate in screwing.
It must be admitted that in the field of embodied intelligence, there is still a big gap between domestic humanoid robots and foreign countries. For example, in March this year, OpenAI and Figure collaborated to launch the robot Figure 01, which demonstrated an amazing ability to understand, judge, act, and self-evaluate.
In Yan Weixin's view, Boston Dynamics is to touch the "ceiling" of the high dynamic motion characteristics of humanoid robots, and then bend down to make a lower-cost mass production robot, and its R&D strength accumulated for more than ten years should not be underestimated.
"For a decade, Atlas robots have sparked our imaginations, inspired the next generation of roboticists, and crossed technical barriers in the field. Now it's time for our hydraulic Atlas robot to relax. This is Boston Dynamics' farewell to the Hydraulic Atlas. But just as it left behind the most of the figures that fell and got up again and again, people's expectations for the future of Atlas are like the backflip of more than a decade ago.