Boston Dynamics CEO on the Company's Top 3 Robots, AI, and Viral Videos (venturebeat.com) 6
In a rare interview, Boston Dynamics CEO Marc Raibert talked about the three robots the company is currently focused on (today -- Spot, tomorrow -- Handle, and the future -- Atlas), its current customers, potential applications, AI, simulation, and of course those viral videos. An excerpt from the interview: "Today," for Raibert, refers to a time period that extends over the course of the next year or so. Spot is the "today" robot because it's already shipping to early adopters. In fact, it's only been shipping for about six weeks. Boston Dynamics wants Spot to be a platform -- Raibert has many times referred to it as "the Android of robots." Spot, which weighs about 60 pounds, "is not an end-use application robot," said Raibert. Users can add hardware payloads, and they can add software that interacts with Spot through its API. In fact, Raibert's main purpose in attending Web Summit was to inspire attendees to develop hardware and software for Spot. Boston Dynamics has an arm, spectrum radio, cameras, and lidars for Spot, but other companies are developing their own sensors. The "Spot" we're talking about is technically the SpotMini. It was renamed when it succeeded its older, bigger brother Spot. "The legacy Spot was a research project. We're really not doing anything with it at the moment. We just call it 'Spot' now; it's the product."
Spot can go up and down stairs by using obstacle detection cameras to see railings and steps. It also has an autonomous navigation system that lets it traverse a terrain. While Spot can be steered by a human, the computers onboard regulate the legs and balance. Spot travels at about 3 miles per hour, which is about human walking speed. It has cameras on its front, back, and sides that help it navigate, travel autonomously, and move omnidirectionally. It has different gaits (slow, walking, running, and even show-off), can turn in place, and has a "chicken head" mode. That last one means it can decouple the motion of its hand from its body, similar to how many animals can stabilize one part while the rest of the body moves.
Spot can go up and down stairs by using obstacle detection cameras to see railings and steps. It also has an autonomous navigation system that lets it traverse a terrain. While Spot can be steered by a human, the computers onboard regulate the legs and balance. Spot travels at about 3 miles per hour, which is about human walking speed. It has cameras on its front, back, and sides that help it navigate, travel autonomously, and move omnidirectionally. It has different gaits (slow, walking, running, and even show-off), can turn in place, and has a "chicken head" mode. That last one means it can decouple the motion of its hand from its body, similar to how many animals can stabilize one part while the rest of the body moves.
Re: (Score:1)
Ha Ha Ha All your votes are belong to us!!!
or alternately
We are the Treason Robots, let us help you to Democracy!!!
"chicken head" mode (Score:2)
As opposed to "headless chicken" mode, which is the usual situation around here.
Perfect Company To Build A Sex Robot (Score:3)
money? what's that? (Score:3)
Since when did they care about actually selling products and making money? They have always been about pure research. I would love to buy any of their amazing robots if I had the cash, but I would imagine these are going to be priced like cars. $20k and up I would imagine.
I get that they want to stay out of the software side of things, but I think it would really be good if they developed some basic software at least as a proof of concept to help sell their robots.
Holy... (Score:1)
You telling me Boston Dynamics is a real company with real products and it is actually selling them to real customers? And not just a meme generator for YouTube?