At an undisclosed location, Boston Dynamics’ founder Marc Raibert showed a wildly receptive audience what he described jokingly as “a nightmare-inducing robot.”
Named Handle, the robot is an experiment in combining wheels and legs, and in a video presentation, it was shown to be able to roll around, bank sharply and even jump and land with ease.
Obviously, Handle has an advanced balance algorithm running through its brain at breakneck speed, otherwise it would collapse immediately. Eventually, the robot should be lent a “neck” and “hand” much like the other robot that Boston Dynamics debuted.
The new Spot, seen here deftly handling a glass of wine.
Called “Spot” or, as Raibert put it, “The New Spot” the quadrupedal robot has been scaled down from earlier Spot designs and seemingly made more silent. But the really interesting feature about the New Spot is its arm and hand that appear on the creature as more of a neck and head. Based on a chicken’s ability to gyroscopically stabilize its head, the New Spot can erratically dance around and keep its head in place. Boston Dynamics demonstrated just how effective this is by showing the Spot can now hold a glass of wine in its hand, without spilling a drop, as it’s body violently thrashes about.
While Boston Dynamics continues to either wow, shock or scare the general public with its uncanny visions of our robotic future, the company, it’s rumored, might be in a bit of a bind after its parent company, Alphabet sought to offload the robotics vanguard. If Boston Dynamics can continue to create displays like these, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it snapped up by the likes of Ratheon, Kuka or other forward-looking firms who know the future of factories and many other human efforts will likely be the exclusive domain of advanced machines.
For more from Boston Dynamics, watch Engineers Bully a Humanoid Robot with Hockey Sticks.