Oh Good, Boston Dynamics Has Robots Doing Parkour Now
In this incredible demonstration by Boston Dynamics’ robot, Atlas, we see the machine executing a series of gymnastic/parkour maneuvers. Boston Dynamics adds:
Atlas uses its whole body — legs, arms, torso — to perform a sequence of dynamic maneuvers that form a gymnastic routine. We created the maneuvers using new techniques that streamline the development process. 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. Using this approach, we developed the routine significantly faster than previous Atlas routines, with a performance success rate of about 80%.