Boston Dynamics' Spot robot is expanding to its resume every day, and the quadruped can add nuclear power plant exploration and radiation monitoring to the list. Engineers from the University of Bristol recently tested Spot around the Exclusion Zone territory of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The Exclusion Zone covers approximately a 1,000-square-mile area in Ukraine surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, where radioactive contamination is highest and public access and inhabitation are restricted. According to the State Agency for Exclusion Zone Management, this is the first time Spot has been tested there. Spot helped create a 3D map of the distribution of nuclear radiation around the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant.

If what you need today is a dog robot twerking to "Uptown Funk," well then you're in luck. Boston Dynamics' SpotMini robot is featured in a new video intended to show off its mobility, and it certainly does that as the robot dog steps, gyrates and dances in time with music. The SpotMini robot weighs about 30 kg (66 lbs) and is all electric. It can run for about 90 minutes on a single charge. It has 17 joints and an attached arm with five degrees of freedom. The SpotMini goes on sale sometime in 2019, but pricing information hasn't been revealed yet.

Late last night Boston Dynamics dropped a new video of its robot dog, SpotMini, in action. It walks up some stairs (no big deal--it's done that before) and then through some corridors, periodically extending its camera-equipped arm to survey bits of a construction site. This is where--given the theatrics of pretty much every other Boston Dynamics video that's come before it--Spot should have done something righteous. Perhaps fighting a human to open a door. But no, just a nice fade to black.

Boston Dynamics' Atlas humanoid robot can do a lot of things I can't, including backflips and running through snow without falling on its face. Now add parkour to that list of feats. In a new video, you can see Atlas bounding up a multi-layered platform, shifting its weight from its right foot to its left foot, and back to the right foot as it runs up the steps. Like Atlas' previous athletic achievements, the maneuver is hypnotizing. Atlas continues to bound through the uncanny valley, not to put humans in our place, but to get humanoid robots to a level where they can walk and, sure, sometimes do backflips among us.

Atlas Shrugged may be the name of Ayn Rand's veritable doorstop of a novel, but no-one is shrugging indifferently when it comes to Boston Dynamic's amazing Atlas robot. For the past five years, Atlas has lived up to A.I. expert Gary Bradski's 2013 statement that "a new species, Robo sapiens, [is] emerging." Designed to carry out missions like search and rescue -- and far, far more -- the bipedal robot has remained on the front line of cutting edge robotics since its unveiling. Standing 6-foot-2-inches and tipping the scale at 330 pounds, the first-gen Atlas makes its public debut in mid-2013. Although Boston Dynamics is the name most associated with Atlas, it's not the only group which is part of its creation.

Boston Dynamics have posted a video online of their "nimble" four legged robot Spot Mini opening the door for another robot.Boston Dynamics make robots that maneuver like animals.

You could argue that the door handle has had a disproportionate influence on modern robotics. It was the humanoids of the Darpa Robotics Challenge, after all, that were tasked with opening doors, and it was those machines that helped drive robots to where they are now. Today Boston Dynamics posted a video of its SpotMini quadruped robot extending an arm out of its head to turn a handle. With the dexterity of a tray-carrying butler, it uses its foot to prop the door ajar, then elbows it all the way open for its (armless) SpotMini friend to walk through. But it's also an interesting twist in the quest to make robots that get along with a world built by and for humans. Maybe the Darpa Robotics Challenge had it wrong with humanoids after all, and the best robots for rescue operations will look nothing like humans--or any other animal, for that matter.

We've grown accustomed to seeing Boston Dynamics' impressive line-up of robots strutting about in periodic video updates, each more terrifying than the last. But, every once in a while, the company unleashes a clip so awesome you can't help but watch. And, so it is with its latest vid starring the humanoid machine known as Atlas. You know, the poor bot that's been toiling away for years, in between tethered walks and prods from its human trainers. The 5-foot 9-inch robot is currently lighter and more agile than ever (thanks to last year's upgrade), and now it's gone all Jackie Chan for a backflip.

Google's humanoid robot goes off road (and this time, doesn't fall over): Watch Boston Dynamic's Atlas learn to trot across the trickiest of terrain Google's Boston Dynamics Atlas has been upgraded with an algorithm that makes the humanoid better balance itself while traversing small stepping stones and rocks. A new way to retrieve'lost' memories: Scientists use... A new way to retrieve'lost' memories: Scientists use... The short clip shows the humanoid standing on a stack of cinder blocks that are placed near a pit filled with rocks and other blocks. The team also explains that the incorporation of angular momentum, as Atlas heaves up its torso when moving its leg at an angle, allows the robot to exhibit'human like balancing motions' In 2015, Atlas competed in what is called the'Robot-Olympics', where the world's most advanced robots compete in a series of challenging events.

From throwing a paper aeroplane to doing a Karate Kid-style high kick, the list of tasks Google's Atlas robot can do is ever-growing. Now the latest movement mastered by the machine involves delicately balancing itself on a 0.7 inch (2 cm) wide strip of plywood. But the most remarkable part is the way the robot eventually loses its balance and steps off the plank, in an almost human-like display of balance and recovery. From throwing a paper aeroplane to doing a Karate Kid-style high kick, the list of tasks the Atlas robot can do is ever-growing. The latest movement mastered by the Boston Dynamics machine involves delicately balancing itself on a 0.7 inch-wide strip of plywood (shown) According to Boston Dynamics, Atlas is a'high mobility, humanoid robot designed to negotiate outdoor, rough terrain.