Boston Dynamics, known for its robot dog “site” used by law enforcement, utility companies and technology researchers, is working with an organization led by its founder and former CEO to create a humanoid robot called Atlas. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company is attacking the Robot and AI Institute, led by Marc Raibert, founder of Dynamics in Boston, to develop map atlas through enhanced learning, a form of machine learning that goes through trial and error Training the machine. The collaboration began earlier this month and will see researchers leveraging training methods to improve robot behavior on tasks such as door opening and running, Boston Dynamics revealed yesterday (February 5).
“Studying the atlas with Boston Dynamics allows us to perform reinforcement learning on the most complex humanoid robots available in reinforcement learning,” Raibert said in a statement. “This work will not only be achieved by improving its skills, but also Simplify the process of implementing new skills to improve the abilities of humanoid creatures, thus playing a crucial role.”
After spinning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Raibert founded Boston Dynamics in 1992, and Raibert previously served as a professor for nearly a decade. Additionally, the company’s commercial robot portfolio currently includes Stretch, a robot used in the warehouse. Meanwhile, its first generation of hydraulic humanoid robots was unveiled by Boston Dynamics in 2013 and retired last year in favor of a new electric version that will be used for real-world applications.
In 2021, Hyundai acquired a majority stake in Boston Dynamics in a $1.1 billion deal. A year later, the automaker also launched the Robotics and AI Research Institute (RAI), then known as the Boston Dynamics Institute of AI, with $400 million in funding. Raibert served as CEO of Boston Dynamics from 1992 to 2019 and has led the organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts since its inception.
RAI’s priorities focus on solving AI issues related to robotics, including cognitive AI, motion AI and robotics ethics. This is not the first time its research team has been deployed to help Boston Dynamics. Last year, it worked with the company to develop a enhanced learning suite with a verification suite.
Now, the research institute will focus on enhancing the capabilities of the map atlas through a project that will highlight areas such as manipulation of objects and fixtures and explore full-body contact strategies that require coordination between weapons and legs, such as dynamic running . Researchers will update public progress through regular publications and Atlas demonstrations. Toyota’s research division also helps with the development of human robots, which last year worked with Boston Dynamics to provide expertise in learning large behavioral models.
“In order for humanoids to be useful, they must be flexible enough to work in many different kinds of environments and in a variety of applications,” Robert Playter, CEO of Boston Dynamics, said in a statement. “Help accelerate core capabilities and make robots like Atlas a valuable tool in people’s lives.”
