Boston Dynamics led a robot revolution. His machines are now teaching new tricks

Mark Reybert, founder and chairman of Boston Dynamicsgave the world a managerie of machines with two and four legs capable of letting the jaw Parkcardcontagious dance combinationsand hardworking shelvesS

Raibert is now striving to lead a revolution in Robot Intelligence as well as in acrobatics. And he says that the recent progress in machine learning It has accelerated the ability of their robots to learn how to perform difficult movements without human assistance. “The hope is that we will be able to create a lot of behavior without having to work out everything that robots do,” Ribert told me recently.

Boston Dynamics may have pioneering robots, but now it is part of a crowded package of companies offering dogs and humanoids to robots. Only this week startup called a figure showed a A new humanoid called Helix, who can obviously unload groceriesS Another company, X1, showed a muscular -looking humanoid called Neo Gamma Doing cases around the homeS One -third, Appronik, said he plans to Scales the production to his humanoid called Apollo. However, demonstrations can be misleading. Also, few companies reveal how much their humanoids cost and it is not clear how many of them really expect to sell them as domestic helpers.

The real test for these robots will be how much they can do regardless of human programming and direct control. And it will depend on the progress like the ones Raibert speaks. Last November I wrote about efforts to create brand new types of models For the control of robots. If this work begins to bear fruit, we can see humanoids and throw themselves more quickly.

Boston Dynamics sells a four -legged robot called Place This is used for oil platforms, construction sites and other places where the wheels fight the terrain. The company also makes a humanoid called Atlas For research. Raibert says Boston Dynamics used Artificial intelligence technique Called reinforcement of training to upgrade Spot’s ability to work so that it moves three times faster. The same method also helps Atlas walk more confidently, Ribert says.