ROBOT OF THE WEEK: ATLAS DOES BACKFLIPS
by Hazed
Boston Dynamics have released a video that shows their humanoid robot, Atlas, doing backflips. The video shows it jumping backwards off a block, flipping over, and landing on its feet. It can also jump onto and off blocks of different heights.
You can see the video here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/42022383/the-humanoid-robot-that-can-do-a-backflip
It’s very impressive until you watch to the end of the video and see some of its failures, where it bungled the landing and fell over! I don’t think we have to worry about robots taking over the world just yet.
The company also released footage of a new version of its dog-like robots, Mini Spot. It looks much more friendly than previous models. You’ll find the Spot video here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/17/boston_dynamics_backflipping_robot/