Robots can do gymnastics now

Parkour all the way off my timeline.

September 24, 2019

So the folks over at Boston Dynamics are busy tinkering away on Atlas, a bipedal humanoid robot designed to assist in search rescue missions. The good news is it's getting more powerful, and the bad news is, well, it's getting more powerful. Not only can Atlas walk in heavy snow and parkour its way through an obstacle course, but as of today, it can also execute a full gymnastics routine. Watch some truly unnerving footage of its new moves, above.

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In a press release, Boston Dynamics explained a bit about how Atlas operates: "First, an optimization algorithm transforms high-level descriptions of each maneuver into dynamically-feasible reference motions. Then Atlas tracks the motions using a model predictive controller that smoothly blends from one maneuver to the next." It might behoove you to store that information in a safe place.

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Robots can do gymnastics now