Boston Dynamics has released footage of a humanoid robot that can do box jumps and back flips.听This is a significant improvement on robot capabilities 鈥� despite what years of sci fi movies have suggested, it鈥檚 actually really hard to make a bipedal robot walk, climb stairs and just generally keep its balance. That鈥檚 why some of the entrants in recent humanoid robot Grand Challenges have looked less human and more like听a cross between an orang-utan and a wolf spider.
The new video suggests that for Boston Dynamics鈥� Atlas robot, some听of these problems have been solved.听Last year, Atlas demonstrated that it听can already , and now听it looks like听it鈥檚 ready for the gym too.
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The timing of this video may have been a bit too on point, given that this week, the UN met to discuss how听worried the world should be about killer robots.
Unsurprisingly, many have greeted听Atlas鈥� new听powers with听premature surrender to our robot overlords. 鈥淚 could do without the grandstanding, future destroyer of worlds,鈥� wrote听.
They shouldn鈥檛. Not even Boston Dynamics has cracked the problem of imbuing robots with manual dexterity. If the following video is anything to go by, all you need to defend yourself against the robot uprising is a door with a handle.
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