Remember the video of that French diver slipping off the board the other week? Made you laugh so hard but also feel sorry for him?
Well here’s an equally funny video but without the guilt – because despite what Hollywood may suggest, robots don’t have emotions.
But they can still fall down. A lot.
Boston Dynamics, innovators in robotics, announced yesterday they were retiring their iconic Atlas, a humanoid robot who over ten years progressed from a hesitant walk to impressive parkour. You probably remember the video of that, the whole internet thought it was fake.
Yes, Atlas has become an outstanding example of the future – or frightening, depending on your perspective.
But the robot’s ability to do backflips and dance didn’t happen overnight. What we see today, as the humanoid prepares for life in a basement, is the outcome of decades of hard work by the Boston Dynamics team, with numerous mistakes along the way.
Atlas stumbling and rolling helplessly down a hill. Atlas falling off a box and releasing what looks like a fart, but is actually hydraulic fluid. Atlas landing on a balance beam crotch first and seeming to grasp its non-existent private parts in agony.
And that isn’t the only convincingly human reaction – often Atlas falls in a very human way, waving arms for balance and desperately trying to regain footing in a comical manner.
You would have to be a robot not to laugh.
Of course, none of these are real mistakes, but just an essential part of learning on the way to creating the Atlas we see today.
A crushed crotch isn’t the only difficult human lesson Atlas has had to learn. A brand new, fully-electric Atlas is here to show the original Atlas that no one is irreplaceable, and sometimes a younger, better version comes along to take over.
Or saw.
Or in this case, a more frightening, disgustingly flexible version with a ring light head that will haunt our dreams.
Up Next
The new Atlas will certainly astound us with its abilities, but for now, we can’t help but actually feel sorry for old Atlas, who did all the hard work to help make this shiny new one so impressive right from the start.
Thankfully, Boston Dynamics’ blooper reel concludes with a proper tribute to Atlas #1, including a bow delivered with such emotion it will almost make you think robots do have emotions.
We’ll be in trouble when that day comes.
No robots were hurt in the making of this video.
