A new video of the Atlas humanoid robot offers more proof that one day soon we'll have natural-looking robots swaggering down our streets, and we'll just have to deal with it.
In the video, posted just days ago, we see the robot, created by Boston Dynamics, balancing itself on a 2-centimeter wide strip of plywood, arms flailing about for balance in much the same way as a human's would. But the most amazing part may not be the balancing act, but the way in which the robot eventually loses its balance and steps off the plank -- it's almost identical to a human's balance and recovery movements.
The algorithm helping Atlas to balance was developed by the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.
Sure, we've seen the Atlas robot do things like walk over rough terrain, balance on one foot, pick up boxes and even recover from the jabs of annoying humans. But this... this is something brand new. Delicately balancing on things can now be added to the list of things that no longer make us humans so special. Can robot Cirque du Soleil be far off?
