I Challenged Boston Dynamics' Famous Atlas Robot

2,932,479
0
Published 2023-11-20
What can this human-like robot really do?
Get an exclusive Surfshark Black Friday deal! Enter promo code CLEO to get up to 6 additional months for free at surfshark.deals/CLEO

Subscribe to support our show Huge If True: youtube.com/cleoabram

You might know Atlas, the famous robot that does parkour and throws heavy objects in Boston Dynamics’ popular YouTube videos. I visited Boston Dynamics to challenge Atlas to a little friendly competition, to see what this robot can REALLY do. I wanted to answer a question I’ve had since I was a kid:

When are all the robots coming?

Like C-3PO! The Iron Giant! Sonny from “I, Robot”! Human-like machines that can help people do more than we can by ourselves. For most of my life, humanoid robots have seemed pretty far away. But recently? Not so much. Tesla with Optimus, Boston Dynamics with Atlas, NASA with Valkyrie, startups like Figure and many more are all making huge leaps in this field. In this video, we take you to the cutting edge of humanoid robots, to show you what they can actually do right now… and what you can expect in the robot future that’s coming.

Chapters:
00:00 What is a humanoid robot?
01:16 Is Boston Dynamics Atlas real?
02:31 What does Atlas look like?
03:11 How big are humanoid robots?
03:49 Why build humanoid robots?
04:31 Why doesn’t Atlas have a tail.. or wings?
05:57 Human v Robot: Round 1
06:46 How can Atlas backflip... but not sit?
08:00 Human v Robot: Round 2
09:17 How does a robot handle adversity?
10:05 How smart is Atlas?
11:05 How does Atlas throw a bag?
11:50 Can Atlas learn?
12:27 Does Atlas use AI?
13:54 What does a humanoid robot really understand?
14:41 What about robot soldiers?
15:45 Why are humanoid robots “huge if true”?
16:50 What about… robot dogs?

You can find me on TikTok here for short, fun tech explainers: www.tiktok.com/@cleoabram
You can find me on Instagram here for more personal stories: www.instagram.com/cleoabram
You can find me on Twitter here for thoughts, threads and curated news: twitter.com/cleoabram

Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, Huge If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s popular YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

Additional reading and watching:
- Boston Dynamics Atlas Demo:    • Atlas, The Next Generation  
- Tesla Optimus Demo:    • Tesla Bot Update | Sort & Stretch  
- Atlas Dancing:    • Do You Love Me?  
- Atlas Parkour:    • Atlas | Partners in Parkour  
- Optimus Walking:    • Tesla Bot Update  
- Inside the Lab: Taking Atlas From Sim to Scaffold:    • Inside the Lab: Taking Atlas From Sim...  
- Robot Soldier CGI FICTION by Corridor Crew:    • New Robot Makes Soldiers Obsolete (Co...  
- Boston Dynamics Statement on Robot Weaponization: bostondynamics.com/news/general-purpose-robots-sho…

Vox: www.vox.com/authors/cleo-abram
IMDb: www.imdb.com/name/nm10108242/

Gear I use:
Camera: Sony A7SIII
Lens: Sony 16–35 mm F2.8 GM and 35mm prime
Audio: Sennheiser SK AVX
Music: Tom Fox and Musicbed

Follow along for more episodes of Huge If True: youtube.com/cleoabram?sub_confirmation=1


Welcome to the joke down low:

How do you know you’re in love with a robot?
You feel a little spark.

Use the word “spark” in a comment to tell me you’re a real one who read to the end… :)

All Comments (21)
  • @Yabuturtle
    "I'm so sorry". Robot: That's all I needed to hear. I'll let you live.
  • @ryanthompson3737
    "OH no, I told my robot to put away the groceries, and it stepped on my dog". What a world to live in when that becomes a real statement.
  • People always talking about how they humanize robots because they feel bad for seeing them being bullied. Meanwhile, I'm apologizing to my instruments whenever I accidentally bump em against something. Like humans will feel bad for hitting a stone under the right circumstances. And the companion cube in Portal is one of the most loved videogame characters and that's in-universe literally just a weighted cube you can put on big buttons.
  • @chumpster69
    Those movements just feel so natural. You can't help feeling that Atlas is thinking, 'I have a breaking point. You push me again, I'll pull your arms out their sockets.'
  • @mymobile5014
    To be fair Cleo, when you pushed the robot it was not expecting it. You were expecting to be pushed so we can see you tense in the video ready for the push. In that sense you had a big advantage over Atlas. I wonder how you would have performed if you had been blindfolded, and not known when the push was coming? So, Atlas's response was even better than you originally thought.
  • @clockwise7391
    Cleo trying to do a backflip and immediately regretting it is the best part 😂
  • @MrMoney331
    Cleo: "Don't Step on my Dog" Robot: "Damn you are so picky"
  • I'm surprised you didn't mention that the primary reason for the Asimo's design/size is that it makes it eye level to a human sitting down, which is the most common scenario for aged-care/health-care robots to be looking after us. The humanoid aspect was also chosen for Asimo since it makes it easier to relate to it.
  • @4RILDIGITAL
    Wow, what an amazing journey you just took us on. I had no idea that making robots more like us could make things so complex. It really made me appreciate how awesome our human bodies are and all the things they do every day. Makes you wonder, if we had humanoid robots in our daily lives, what tasks would we give them? Definitely something to think about. Great watch!
  • "Why we need robots that look like humans? Because we have build the world for humans" "I know Atlas is not a human, but we are" 11:45
  • @Macatttack848
    Love your videos. I'm a science teacher and used this in my robotics class, great intro and overview, kids got really engaged. Keep up the awesome work.
  • @John-bd3ts
    My dog can get me a beer in the fridge, so I’m fine without robots.
  • @Unmannedair
    Hey Cleo, I really like the ad timer.... That is a subtle and brilliant use of psychology. I usually don't have the patience for ads... But with the timer, I felt that the amount of time I had to wait was low enough that I didn't want to bother trying to skip ahead... In essence, because I knew how long I had to wait, I felt more like being patient.
  • @Mr_Wiley
    after seeing the "push" autocorrection: think about this. A) Atlas is very good at calculating balance correction. If you push it, it will autocorrect. B) Now say you fall into atlas accidentally because YOU tripped. Atlas now autocorrects its balance and crushes your limb in the process because it valued its balance over a much MUCH harder calculation including your choice of balancing and autocorrection in real time. C) everything in (b) gets multiplied even further into complexity as people have entirely different levels of coordination, or accident experience. D) it chooses a neutral option, of collapse, and now a dangerous heavy piece of machinery with limbs is falling with/on you. The amount of corrections and processing power to function safely around humans is off the charts.
  • 06:49 Never mind Moravec's Paradox, Atlas' legs are shorter and less flexible. Improve flexibility, limb length and balance becomes more difficult (especially for things like backflips) because centre of gravity is higher and with a higher centre of gravity comes higher angular momentum, slower rotary response and higher angular commitment; pretty much all the things which force taller people to go about balance-dependent actions more slowly, on average.
  • @HellOnWheel
    The part where he's telling Cleo to push Atlas harder and she's like "are you sure?" reminds me of the Milgram experiment. 😂
  • Amazing Cleo! I must have seen over 50 atlas videos over the years but yours gave loads of great info and context that wern’t in any of the otherones!
  • @peteblac1
    Kudos for a thoughtful, engaged, critically edited look at our relationship to automation. Please consider this maxim: “Be careful what you wish for.”
  • @urbantryhard4785
    12:51 ihhh lucu bingit gemoy, mbaknya ngangguk-ngangguk tapi robotnya noleh-noleh... So CUTE😽