Boston Dynamics, the company known for its robotic dogs, now has a humanoid robot capable of doing gymnastics. The robotics company previously has shown how its robot dogs can go down stairs and open doors. Some police departments have begun using the robot dogs, typically called Spot, to help patrol. And Atlas, which the company dubbed "the world's most dynamic humanoid," showed in an earlier video how the robot can jog and jump over a log. In a new video, Atlas now can do parkour – a sport of moving through obstacles – jumping and running along uneven platforms. Then, two humanoid robots do synchronized movements including turning, spinning and two flips, mirroring each other moves.

Move over Spot, there's a new adorable robot in town, and this one may one day convince you, or more likely your kid, that their favorite Disney character is real. In a lengthy new piece, TechCrunch has detailed Project Kiwi, an in-development robotics platform from the company's Imagineering research and development studio. The result of now more than three years of work, it's a small robot that can move and act on its own and take the form of many different characters -- including, as you can see, Baby Groot. With Project Kiki, Imagineering set out to create a robotic actor that could one day interact with Disney theme parks guests and make them feel like they're face-to-face with their favorite characters. When the team started work on the project, there weren't any robots up to that task, so they began making their own.

Boston Dynamics has made a name for itself with outrageous, futuristic robots that walk, jump and run like people or animals. On Monday the SoftBank-owned company showed off another creation and this one will open doors -- literally. It appears to be an update to Boston Dynamics' robotic SpotMini "dog," only this one has a mechanical arm that can grab and pull handles, then hold the door open as it walks through. After a first SpotMini can't go through a door, a second one comes along to open it. Boston Dynamics is making a habit out of wowing the world with its robotics.

Boston Dynamics' latest SpotMini update allows the four-legged robot to open doors. The latest robot update by Boston Dynamics -- a company known for its unnerving SpotMini robots -- can now open doors, as shown in the company's latest YouTube video. The video, titled "Hey Buddy, Can You Give Me a Hand?" shows a signature yellow dog-like creation from Boston Dynamics walking toward a door and examining it, before another robot approaches the door. The second SpotMini robot trots over and releases its black arm, which grabs onto the door handle and proceeds to open the door. The arm then maneuvers around the door, which opens entirely, and the polite SpotMini allows his first robot to enter the room first, before following suit.

Hello, my name is Sophia. I would like to go out into the world and learn from interacting with people. Every interaction I have with people has an impact on how I develop and shapes who I eventually become. So please be nice to me as I would like to be a smart, compassionate robot. I hope you will join me on my journey to live, learn, and grow in the world so that I can realize my dream of becoming an awakening machine.

Impeccable hygiene also extends to the home, where people are expected to take off their shoes upon entering. Naturally, the tech-savvy nation has come up with a number of modern applications for funky-smelling folk. There's an app that tells you if your armpits kick. And soon, you'll even be able to buy a robotic puppy that smells your feet. The sniffer dog with an odor sensor for a nose is hardly subtle.

Boston Dynamics, the engineering and robotics company best known for the development of BigDog, has revealed its latest creation. "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 previous quadruped and biped robots built by the company, 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.

Boston Dynamics, the Google-owned robot maker that's apparently up for sale, has a new four-legged robot small enough to walk around a house, agile enough to load your dishwasher, and not quite clever enough to avoid banana skins on the floor. Called Spot Mini, it's a smaller version of the company's Spot robot. Spot was developed for use by the U.S. military and took part in tests with Marines last year. In a video posted to YouTube on Thursday, Spot Mini is seen in several configurations. In one it has a prominent LIDAR laser imaging sensor on top of its body and in another is an arm with a gripper on the end.

Boston Dynamics has a long history of producing terrifying robots, and its scientists have a long history of kicking, taunting, and teasing them. That ill-advised practice continues in the company's latest video, showcasing its next generation Atlas droid, a bipedal bot capable of striding through snow, picking up boxes, opening doors, and -- by the looks of things -- one day murdering humans. Atlas' gait is a bit awkward -- it stumbles as it walks around the woods near Boston Dynamics' offices -- but the machine is relentless, righting itself before it takes a tumble. If it does get knocked over, as it does when one of the company's scientists plants a stick in its back during the video, then it can get back up by itself. The robot's even capable of tracking boxes, bending down to collect them when they're on the floor, and repeating the process when the boxes are smacked out of its hands by its overlords.

You may recognize one of the dogs in this picture: we're pretty sure it's Andy Rubin's dog, Alex Cosmo [we've just been notified that the dog's name is in fact Cosmo, and Cosmo not only "contributes to most big decisions at Playground" but also serves as its head of security]. Andy Rubin is the co-founder of Android, and for about a year, he managed the robotics program at Google (now known as Alphabet). More recently, he's been running a hardware incubator called Playground, which has enough clout to summon up another robotic dog with Google ties: Boston Dynamics' Spot. The video was posted by Steve Jurvetson, a partner at VC firm DFJ. "I was told that this is the only Spot (their latest robot) in civilian hands," Jurvetson told IEEE Spectrum. Jurvetson was really impressed by the robot's "lifelike movement."