11 years after the start of development, Boston Dynamics canceled the Atlas anthropomorphic robot project. On its YouTube channel, the company published a touching video with funny and memorable moments from the life of Atlas and said that it was time for the hydraulic robot to “retire and rest.”
Boston Dynamics created Atlas in 2013 as part of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) competition. The very first version of Atlas, 1.9 m tall and weighing almost 150 kg, was tethered to an external power source and could walk, hold objects and restore balance.
“Atlas was one of the most advanced humanoid robots available when it debuted,” DARPA noted. “It was a physical shell for the software, brains and nerves developed by the Boston Dynamics teams.”
Over the next 11 years, Boston Dynamics refined the Atlas design, and the robot learned to run, jump, avoid obstacles and dance. The latest Atlas, standing 1.5m tall and weighing 85kg, is battery-powered and driven by 20-degree-of-freedom hydraulic joints. It is equipped with RGB cameras and depth sensors, and the calculations needed to perceive and evaluate control are performed on three on-board computers.
Despite the introduction of new features, Boston Dynamics never commercialized Atlas, unlike the robotic dog Spot and the warehouse robot Stretch, which was likely one of the reasons for the closure of the project. However, the farewell video ends with a promise to meet again. Perhaps the company will use Atlas's developments in its future projects.
bbabo.Net