Later this year, Boston Dynamics plans to put its all-electric humanoid Atlas robot to work in a Hyundai factory. The new version of the bot, evolved from the hydraulic Atlas model that's been performing viral video demos since 2013, made its public debut last spring. But while the company's dog-like Spot and warehouse robot Stretch are already deployed at industrial sites, the Hyundai pilot will be the first time Atlas is used in commercial manufacturing. Boston Dynamics, which was acquired by Hyundai for 1.1 billion in 2021, is coy about how the robot will be used, but the general idea is that it's designed to be stronger and more reliable than a human worker. "The robot is going to be able to do things that are difficult for humans," Boston Dynamics spokesperson Kerri Neelon says.

Eight years ago, the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency organized a painful-to-watch contest that involved robots slowly struggling (and often failing) to perform a series of human tasks, including opening doors, operating power tools, and driving golf carts. Clips of them fumbling and stumbling through the Darpa Robotics Challenge soon went viral. Today the descendants of those hapless robots are a lot more capable and graceful. Several startups are developing humanoids that they claim could, in just a few years, find employment in warehouses and factories. Jerry Pratt, a senior research scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, a nonprofit research institute in Florida, led a team that came second in the Darpa challenge back in 2015.

Asked a question, Ameca fixes you with sapphire-blue eyes. Does that face contain a hint of a smile? "Yes, I am a robot," is the reply. Another Ameca, standing nearby in a group of four, stares across inquisitively and tries to join in. "Currently, it's the worst-ever party guest," says Will Jackson, Ameca's creator.

A two-legged robot just made history. The bipedal droid, who goes by "Cassie" and was created at Oregon State University's company Agility Robotics, just ran the fastest 100 meters by a bipedal robot to earn an official Guinness World Record, the school announced Tuesday. While paling in comparison to a Usain Bolt (who holds the human world record at 9.58 seconds), Cassie's time of 24.73 seconds is impressive considering it's the first robot to use machine learning to control a running gait on outdoor terrain. The feat was executed on Oregon State's Whyte Track and Field Center. Cassie started the run in a standing position before going into sprint formation, which shows the robot with its knees bent like an ostrich, with the world record being captured on video here.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Cassie the robot, invented at the Oregon State University College of Engineering and produced by OSU spinout company Agility Robotics, has established a Guinness World Record for the fastest 100 meters by a bipedal robot. Cassie clocked the historic time of 24.73 seconds at OSU's Whyte Track and Field Center, starting from a standing position and returning to that position after the sprint, with no falls. The 100-meter record builds on earlier achievements by the robot, including traversing 5 kilometers in 2021 in just over 53 minutes. Cassie, the first bipedal robot to use machine learning to control a running gait on outdoor terrain, completed the 5K on Oregon State's campus untethered and on a single battery charge. Cassie was developed under the direction of Oregon State robotics professor Jonathan Hurst with a 16-month, $1 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

Cassie the robot, invented at the Oregon State University College of Engineering and produced by OSU spinout company Agility Robotics, has established a Guinness World Record for the fastest 100 metres by a bipedal robot. Cassie clocked the historic time of 24.73 seconds at OSU's Whyte Track and Field Center, starting from a standing position and returning to that position after the sprint, with no falls. The 100-metre record builds on earlier achievements by the robot, including traversing five kilometres in 2021 in just over 53 minutes. Cassie, the first bipedal robot to use machine learning to control a running gait on outdoor terrain, completed the 5K on Oregon State's campus untethered and on a single battery charge. Cassie was developed under the direction of Oregon State robotics professor Jonathan Hurst.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Cassie the robot, invented at the Oregon State University College of Engineering and produced by OSU spinout company Agility Robotics, has established a Guinness World Record for the fastest 100 meters by a bipedal robot. Cassie clocked the historic time of 24.73 seconds at OSU's Whyte Track and Field Center, starting from a standing position and returning to that position after the sprint, with no falls. The run can also be seen on YouTube.) The 100-meter record builds on earlier achievements by the robot, including traversing 5 kilometers in 2021 in just over 53 minutes. Cassie, the first bipedal robot to use machine learning to control a running gait on outdoor terrain, completed the 5K on Oregon State's campus untethered and on a single battery charge.

Cassie the robot, invented at Oregon State University and produced by OSU spinout company Agility Robotics, has made history by traversing 5 kilometres outdoors in just over 53 minutes. The robot was developed under the direction of robotics professor Jonathan Hurst with a 16-month, $1 million grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense. Since Cassie's introduction in 2017, OSU students funded by the National Science Foundation have been exploring machine learning options for the robot. "The Dynamic Robotics Laboratory students in the OSU College of Engineering combined expertise from biomechanics and existing robot control approaches with new machine learning tools," said Hurst, who co-founded Agility in 2017. "This type of holistic approach will enable animal-like levels of performance.