Google’ robot stomp around like a drunk Iron Man

Watch Google’s ‘terrifying’ two-legged robot walking in the wild (Video)

     BY KAVITA IYER 

Google has released its “Terminator-like” and “terrifyingly lifelike” humanoid robot out into the wild known as Atlas. Created by Boston Dynamics, an American robotics
company, the “Agile Anthropomorphic” Atlas is a bipedal humanoid robot, designed for a variety of search and rescue tasks. Boston Dynamics funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is also famous for its its swimming, snow-climbing BigDog and speedy robotic Cheetah.

Designed to negotiate outdoor, rough terrain, Atlas is a high mobility, humanoid robot was recently made to go for its first-ever walk in the woods. Video footage of the two-legged Atlas robot has some saying it’s “time to hide”, while it is pounding through a forest. Coping with potential stumbling blocks, it clearly shows that the robot is trying to come to terms with the real world for the first time. The forest footage begins around the 40-second mark.

Check out the video here yourself and see if you’re scared or just astonished.

Earlier this month, Google-owned Boston Dynamics, displayed the footage of Atlas at a conference in Cambridge, Mass. Weighing about 300 pounds, the 6-foot-2-inch-tall robot uses cameras and a laser rangefinder to become aware of its surroundings.

Atlas can walk bipedally leaving the upper limbs free to lift, carry, and manipulate the environment. In extremely challenging terrain, Atlas is strong, independent and coordinated enough to climb using hands and feet, to pick its way through congested spaces.

“Out in the world is just a totally different challenge than in the lab. You can’t predict what it’s going to be like,” Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert says in the video above, as he plays the Atlas footage.

He also said that the hike was a chance to test the robot’s balance and ability to reply to an environment that is not predictable. He also hinted that the robot could overpower it’s creators and take over Massachusetts. Currently, Atlas needs to be given company by someone carrying its tethered power source for walking through the woods.

“I’m not saying it can do everything you can do,” Raibert said, “but you can imagine if we keep pushing we’ll get there.”