from Hacker News

An electric new era for Atlas

by colinramsay on 4/17/24, 1:12 PM with 425 comments

• by dang on 4/17/24, 5:03 PM

  Related links (from merged threads):

  Farewell to HD Atlas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8

  Boston Dynamics retires its legendary humanoid robot https://spectrum.ieee.org/boston-dynamics-atlas-retires

  All New Atlas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ECwExc-_M

• by Tiereven on 4/17/24, 5:35 PM

  As we enter an era of wide scale robotic deployment, we need to think long and hard about what the maintenance bottleneck will look like. We need to advocate now for reliable and open upgrades, replacement parts, service documentation, and diagnostics.

  Right to repair will be even more important for this technology than autos or general computing.

• by benjijay on 4/17/24, 3:11 PM

  That first video of the bot standing from the floor and turning towards the camera one joint at a time does something strange to the uncanny valley horror movie part of my brain.

• by blackhawkC17 on 4/17/24, 12:56 PM

  Figure, a new startup, is working on a similar humanoid robot. They just raised $675 million from Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft [1]. Not sure about their chances of succeeding.

  On the other hand, as a non-American, I admire that the USA is seemingly the only place where people get funding for wonky ideas that sometimes become very successful.

  1- https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/29/robot-startup-figure-valued-...

• by FabHK on 4/17/24, 3:32 PM

  The progress since the 2015 DARPA challenge (where robots succeeded mostly in falling down) is impressive. Less than a decade!

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TaYhjpOfo

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Robotics_Challenge

• by charlesabarnes on 4/17/24, 1:11 PM

  Seems like they just posted a video about the new Atlas https://youtu.be/29ECwExc-_M

• by Isamu on 4/17/24, 2:18 PM

  The success of old Atlas was partly due to the compactness and high power of hydraulic actuators. There’s a lot of actuators to pack into a humanoid robot and it takes a lot of power to do backflips.

  I am betting that this one is less powerful, no backflip.

• by modeless on 4/17/24, 4:19 PM

  Does anyone else think the joints seem stiffer than the hydraulic version? The head and torso are receiving a lot of shock forces with each step. That seems like a downgrade from the previous one.

  It clearly has a much larger range of motion and if it is also stronger as claimed then I can't wait for the acrobatics videos that are surely coming.

  But I think the most exciting thing is that it has hands from the start. Atlas didn't have hands for most of its existence and so couldn't do much in the way of useful tasks. I think controlling hands is actually much harder than walking or doing backflips. Hopefully Boston Dynamics will be able to make this version useful.

• by dkobia on 4/17/24, 1:19 PM

  If all Boston Dynamics did was make Youtube videos, they'd have a pretty good business.

• by FabHK on 4/17/24, 3:28 PM

  We've come a long way from the 2015 DARPA Challenge, where the robots succeeded only in falling down:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TaYhjpOfo

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Robotics_Challenge

• by fforflo on 4/17/24, 1:09 PM

  What's the best way/resource to get an honest/pragmatic view of where things stand with the "robots market" in general and how much and fast things are really progressing?

  I remember seeing prototypes from Toshiba when I was 10 (20 years ago), and every few months, there is a company releasing an "amazing video." its mother company then spins it off like there's no adequate progress, and so on.

• by ragebol on 4/17/24, 1:36 PM

  That is a very good-looking robot and no doubt very capable. But did I see correctly that it can just turn it legs 180 degrees to move backwards, as well as it's head? Talk about super-human abilities! Bit creepy though

• by K5EiS on 4/17/24, 1:40 PM

  They also posted a farewell to the previous robot yesterday

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8

  Looking forward to see some more robot parkour/dance

• by semireg on 4/17/24, 2:18 PM

  Love how they applied first principles to standing up. Can’t wait to see how the robot deals with “disarm human.”

  Spoiler alert: dis-arm.

• by tivert on 4/17/24, 2:09 PM

  The VCs said "don't be afraid," AI wasn't going to be Skynet. Rather it would a tool that would bring about a utopia of human flourishing.

  But it was always going to be Skynet.

  I bet the next version will have teeth.

• by assimpleaspossi on 4/17/24, 2:10 PM

  I'm thinking the humanoid approach to robotics is now a gimmick. In most--if not all--cases, a robot in human form is not necessary at all if the approach is to get work done.

• by Fricken on 4/17/24, 2:10 PM

  BD is done with hydraulics. I wonder how good this new robot will be at powerful, dynamic movements such as leaps and flips.

• by 1970-01-01 on 4/17/24, 5:11 PM

  I would love to see how well it does the simple job of sweeping and cleaning floors with a broom and dust pan. This is such a wicked and non-trivial task that it would be a good indicator of overall progress.

• by e12e on 4/17/24, 8:46 PM

  > This journey will start with Hyundai

  Wonder if that includes weapon systems?

  https://en.hyundai-wia.com/business/defense_business.asp

  > With its cutting-edge unmanned and automated weapons systems, Hyundai WIA upgraded the level of defense industry system.

• by 3dsnano on 4/17/24, 1:48 PM

  feels incredibly eery. it doesn't move like how my brain expects a humanoid being to move. reminds me of how the EMMI's move in Metroid Dread... especially when it goes from the prone position to standing. maybe its my DNA or i've played enough video games to realize that this thing is probably not my friend and will not end well. uncanny valley vibes.

• by beezlebroxxxxxx on 4/17/24, 1:41 PM

  Are there any Boston Dynamic robots currently in use? Specifically the biped ones, but I'm also interested in the quadrupeds, which they seemed to be pushing for military/search and rescue/packhorse uses.

• by linsomniac on 4/17/24, 2:17 PM

  Two words: Nightmare fuel.

• by FpUser on 4/17/24, 2:42 PM

  OMG. When he got hydraulic lines raptured or severed his foot I felt like I was watching human being hurt. Insane.

• by sebastianconcpt on 4/17/24, 3:01 PM

  Sorry for the non technical, but the comments in that YouTube video have significant LOL value.

• by stephc_int13 on 4/17/24, 2:28 PM

  I am much more excited to see the progress of what Boston Dynamics is doing than by the next iteration of AI Chat.

  Of course this is not directly comparable, but I think robotics is harder and more less open to brute force approaches.

• by luckyou on 4/17/24, 3:03 PM

  As usual, science fiction predicted everything exactly the opposite. It was thought that robots would handle hard physical labor while humans would engage in creative work...

• by browningstreet on 4/17/24, 6:25 PM

  Are there accessible and/or remote kill switches on these?

• by koko-blat on 4/17/24, 7:20 PM

  But Amnon has a better solution...

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJTf4JhGSsI

• by doodda on 4/17/24, 2:08 PM

  I don't know enough about robotics to judge BD's technology or innovations. What I can be sure of is that they have an incredible marketing function.

• by systemz on 4/17/24, 2:03 PM

  I was excited when I saw the title. Now I'm scared due to this hardware and being aware of LLM possibilities and mixing it.

• by michelb on 4/17/24, 1:53 PM

  Fantastic movement, not bound to human anatomy.

• by chaostheory on 4/17/24, 2:14 PM

  What I find funny is just like with generative AI, this was under the Google banner first until it got struck with office politics related to Andy Rubin. I still don’t understand why someone else at Google didn’t take it over. They really lost their way a long time ago.

• by meindnoch on 4/18/24, 10:07 AM

  This moves like a real robot. In contrast, the Figure 01 video was clearly a fake one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq1QZB5baNw).

• by metalrain on 4/18/24, 3:14 AM

  So as robots became more capable and less contained (like current industrial robot arms). What novel tools/techniques there are to stop misbehaving robot?

  Will casting a net stop robot like this or do you have to somehow dismember it?

• by throwaway71271 on 4/17/24, 2:37 PM

  just in time for the civil war :)

  Geoffrey Hinton suggested that by 2030 the US military wants 50% robot

• by smeej on 4/17/24, 6:26 PM

  The Doctor Who fan in me is just glad it sounds like a Cyberman when it walks.

• by exodust on 4/17/24, 2:16 PM

  I wonder if you could send a robot to the store to buy cigarettes in the UK, or indeed the robot may decide it wants to buy cigarettes.

  "Sorry we can't sell cigarettes to anyone born after 2009, or robots".

• by moi2388 on 4/17/24, 1:06 PM

  Well, that article didn’t say anything at all really, now did it?

• by ChrisArchitect on 4/17/24, 2:54 PM

  Related:

  Boston Dynamics Retires Its Legendary Humanoid Robot

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40063766

• by aap_ on 4/17/24, 2:51 PM

  Recently got a tour through boston dynamics, but mostly saw the spot department, the atlas department was off limits. I guess this was the reason then :) very cool

• by KnuthIsGod on 4/18/24, 4:07 AM

  FANUC robots are the dominant species across the world. Boston Dynamics robots have good marketing, but are yet to make a profit for their owners.

• by relaxing on 4/17/24, 3:08 PM

  Good, the hydraulic version sucked ass. Jerky, unpredictable power delivery, when it wasn’t broken. Was such a pain to model and design kinematics around.

• by GregDavidson on 4/17/24, 7:06 PM

  I'm more interested in how they're automating the manufacturing of their robots. Robots making robots driving the learning curve.

• by zzzeek on 4/17/24, 1:59 PM

  The circular screen is supposed to display the words "PLEASE DISPLAY YOUR PAPERWORK, CITIZEN", otherwise what's the point really

• by matthewfelgate on 4/17/24, 2:00 PM

    1. Amazing technical ability.
    2. Feels scary, both the beyond-human movement, and the design of the 'face'.

• by seatac76 on 4/17/24, 1:58 PM

  Looks like they were able to miniaturize a lot of the components. Looks much cleaner and the dexterity looks much improved too.

• by lvl102 on 4/17/24, 6:18 PM

  I am so glad Masayoshi sold BD to Hyundai so Elon didn’t get his hands on them. They can easily go public for $10B.

• by nbzso on 4/17/24, 2:08 PM

  So it begins. John, where are you?

• by stevage on 4/18/24, 12:48 AM

  I must be old, but when I look at stuff like this I feel nothing but dread.

• by p1mrx on 4/17/24, 2:57 PM

  > a [still looking for a collective noun for humanoid robots] of Atlases

  a logic of Atlases?

• by RhysU on 4/18/24, 2:51 AM

  That video is Cirque de Soleil meets The Mitchells vs the Machines.

• by hentrep on 4/17/24, 2:24 PM

  Maybe it’s just the lighting, but this look like CGI to me.

• by cess11 on 4/17/24, 2:37 PM

  The cyberpunk authors warned us. We should have listened.

• by alfor on 4/17/24, 2:08 PM

  Funny, just after the all electric Optimus.

  For sure they have been working on this for a long time.

  I predict that they will also move toward neural nets for all the vision, control and understanding of the world (like Tesla)

• by solardev on 4/17/24, 2:27 PM

  OK well, guess I ain't sleeping this week.

• by dcchambers on 4/17/24, 1:58 PM

  Lmao of course they had to make him get up off the ground in the creepiest way possible.

• by andsoitis on 4/17/24, 2:33 PM

  At least you can hear it coming.

• by consumer451 on 4/18/24, 5:05 AM

  Related:

  > Billionaire-Fueled Lobbying Group Behind the State Bills to Ban UBI Experiments

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39549098

• by andrewinardeer on 4/17/24, 2:32 PM

  Nothing to worry about here.

• by chasd00 on 4/17/24, 5:49 PM

  doesn't it make more sense to have robots like these drive cars? Then any car, even an old clunker, can be a "self-driving car".

  You could offload the heavy processing to a larger computer in the back seat. Then even the robots get to suffer with backseat drivers :)

• by micromacrofoot on 4/17/24, 1:49 PM

  oh wow, this looks much more like a commercial product — quite uncanny

  I bet it talks

• by thrwaway1337 on 4/17/24, 5:02 PM

  I'm recording this, because this could be the last thing I'll ever say

  The city I once knew as home is teetering on the edge of radioactive oblivion

  A three-hundred thousand degree baptism by nuclear fire

  I'm not sorry, we had it coming

  A surge of white-hot atonement will be our wake-up call

  Hope for our future is now a stillborn dream

  The bombs begin to fall and I'm rushing to meet my love

  Please, remember me

  There is no more

• by mandibles on 4/17/24, 4:25 PM

  NYPD probably has an order for 10k of these things, for your protection of course.

• by Mizza on 4/17/24, 1:59 PM

  Jesus fuck. I guess the war machine is hungry again so they've fired all the people who made the cute dancing videos and brought in the nightmare engineers.

  I'm thinking more and more that that "Terminator" was the most accurate of all the sci-fi dystopias.

• by ericfrenkiel on 4/17/24, 4:18 PM

  I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

  Progress in robotics is beginning to look non-linear and it will have only positive impact on the world.

  Skynet won’t be humanoid terminators. Or even drones. The real threat of AI is if/when it will be applied to the field of virology.

• by mklarmann on 4/17/24, 2:44 PM

  I guess the big news is, that it runs on batteries

• by chatmasta on 4/17/24, 9:14 PM

  If a humanoid robot can assemble a car, it can probably assemble another humanoid robot…

• by ericfrenkiel on 4/17/24, 4:28 PM

  I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

  Progress in robotics is beginning to look non-linear and it will have only positive impact on the world.

  Skynet won’t be humanoid terminators. Or even drones. The real threat of AI is if/when it will be applied to the field of virology.

• by prime09 on 4/17/24, 1:43 PM

  They found the bottom of the uncanny valley and started digging.

• by jack_riminton on 4/17/24, 1:50 PM

  A hill I'm willing to die on: bipedal robots are an evolutionary path that machines don't need to go down, we have lovely bearings and wheels that work perfectly with electric motors.

  Yes obviously there are limitations i.e. stairs and uneven terrain but there are wheeled/tracked solutions for those too

  Most of these robots will be used in factories that have very nice flat concrete floors

• by Karellen on 4/17/24, 2:25 PM

  Boston Dynamics: Hey everyone, we're really excited to show you the great progress we are making in our attempts to re-create the Torment Nexus, from the classic cautionary sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus.

  Too many responses: Oh, wow, it's so creepy, just like the book! Lol. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it won't turn out as bad as DCTTN. ;-) Best just get on with my day and mostly forget about it then...

  (With apologies to Alex Blechman)

• by squarefoot on 4/17/24, 2:44 PM

  Quite scary, but can't hold a candle to this one ;)

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3RIHnK0_NE

• by xnx on 4/17/24, 1:14 PM

  "Legendary"? Definitely a cool novelty/tech-demo/research-platform, but nothing about it seems "legendary".

• by temporarely on 4/17/24, 12:55 PM

  r/legendary/creepy

• by DonnyV on 4/17/24, 1:18 PM

  I still can't believe Google sold this company. What an absolute horrible decision.