This Robot Video Will Show You Why It's So Hard To Predict The Future – Innovation Excellence

If you've been following the work of Boston Dynamics (currently owned by Softbank) you've probably seen some of their four legged and wheeled robots which are able to navigate all sorts of obstacles and remain standing after being kicked, shoved, and pushed. While some of these robots, such as their BigDog, WildCat, and Spot appear to have an amazing ability to mimic an animal's gait. However, last year they introduced a two-legged anthropomorphic robot called Atlas, which was based on a more primitive biped called Petman. When I first saw Atlas I was impressed by its (his?) ability to perform some basic human-like tasks, such as picking up objects and resisting a human's attempts to knock it over. Still, it most often looked as though it would have a tough time passing a field sobriety test when it attempted to traverse even moderately rough terrain.