Two videos give a unique look at the robots of Boston Dynamics including a new bipedal two-wheeled, yes legs and wheels, robot that has been described as something from a "nightmare".
Update: Official Boston Dynamics Video of the new robot.
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Update: Boston Dynamics Has released an official video of Handle
Handle is a research robot that stands 6.5 ft tall, travels at 9 mph and jumps 4 feet vertically. It uses electric power to operate both electric and hydraulic actuators, with a range of about 15 miles on one battery charge. Handle uses many of the same dynamics, balance and mobile manipulation principles found in the quadruped and biped robots we build, but with only about 10 actuated joints, it is significantly less complex. Wheels are efficient on flat surfaces while legs can go almost anywhere: by combining wheels and legs Handle can have the best of both worlds.
The new robot, star of the video, is named "Handle" because it is supposed to handle objects. Clearly this is a novel form of bipedalism because the wheels at the ends of the legs balance like a Segway.
The footage isn't high quality as it was shot by a member of the audience in a lecture/presentation - but it is very worth watching.
If you are only interested in seeing "Handle" in action then, rather than the full 5-minute version, you might prefer this extract which has been edited to show just the lecture screen. Make sure you watch to the point about 53 seconds in, where the robot jumps an obstacle:
The original video can be seen below. In it Handle makes its entrance at about 3:40 minutes. Although it isn't as clear, there are lots of additional things to see:
This second video is a 360 interactive view of the Boston Dynamic facility both inside and outside. Make sure that you pan around otherwise you will miss a lot that is going on. The video opens with Atlas going for a walk with his "dog":
I think the humans in the video probably are real humans and not androids.
With so many doomsayers around at the moment it is almost a refreshing breeze to hear people talk about the positive side of AI. In a video Demis Hassabis and Fei-Fei Li talk about AI and Science.
