Boston Dynamics robots dance to show off their agility

Massachusetts-based Boston Dynamics has thrown up an impressive and unnerving range of robots of varying shapes dancing to the tune of the Motown classic “Do You Love Me.”

The whole gang has hit the dance floor, including the humanoid Atlas first shaking its leg and then joined by Spot the quadruped mobile robot designed for sensing, inspection, and remote operation; Handle, the mobile manipulation robot for moving boxes in the warehouse; Pick, the vision processing solution that uses deep-learning to enable building and depalletising of mixed-SKU pallets, all dancing to the tune in an electrifying dance.

The world’s most dynamic humanoid robot, Atlas is a research platform designed to push the limits of whole-body mobility. Atlas’s advanced control system and state-of-the-art hardware give the robot the power and balance to demonstrate human-level agility.

Atlas has one of the world’s most compact mobile hydraulic systems. Custom motors, valves, and a compact hydraulic power unit enable Atlas to deliver high power to any of its 28 hydraulic joints for impressive feats of mobility.

Boston Dynamics dance video of the robots is meant to tell the world that the humanoids and the quadrupeds are as agile as living creatures and are capable of doing things that are now seen impossible.

Robots already operate in places where ordinary humans find it difficult to function. The bots are deployed to sniff out bombs, patrol oil rigs, monitor Covid-19 patients.

The moves are a bit janky at times, but the mobility and coordination of their routine is impressively fluid for lumps of metal and plastic.

Boston Dynamics said it got the gang together to celebrate the start of what is a happier year, it has not disclosed the power behind the robotic dance show.