Aaron’s Thoughts On The Week
“Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
In 2000, Honda introduced ASIMO, a humanoid robot, and the world went nuts. Videos of the little guy became media gems at a time before YouTube made things go viral. By 2009, there were over 100 ASIMOs worldwide, and that was when he peaked. By 2018, Honda announced that there would be no more support for the robot, and they would move on to more advanced projects. In March 2022, ASIMO made his last official appearance and was officially retired.
While ASIMO was impressing many with his abilities, a newly formed company called Boston Dynamics was competing in a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that was looking at humanoid robotics. On July 11, 2013, they introduced their robot, ATLAS, to the world.
Atlas would wow people with videos of him doing various tasks. Going Viral became ATLAS’s calling card. However, the answer was unclear when asked if ATLAS would ever become a commercial product. Depending on who you listened to, the message seemed always to be that ATLAS was a research platform that would help Boston Dynamics develop other robots for commercialization. And that seemed to be the case.
In 2019, Boston Dynamics made their “robot dog” SPOT available for sale after introducing it on June 23, 2016. The company also made their STRETCH Robot, which had some elements from an earlier robot called HANDLE (which had elements from ATLAS), available to the market in 2021. So it appeared that ATLAS was a research platform and would probably be on the same path as ASIMO and retired in time.
Then everything changed….
ATLAS made his last viral video of “helping” a construction worker a year ago. Again, the question was asked if ATLAS was finally heading to commercialization. This looked like a use case where an ATLAS could be useful. Again, not much was said.
Then, in 2023, it appeared that everyone was introducing a humanoid robot, and not only were they making their own viral videos, but they were actually being deployed. When Amazon and Agility Robotics announced that they would work together to deploy DIGIT humanoid robots into Amazon warehouses, the doors for humanoids in the workplace blew wide open.
Tesla, BMW, and others also announced plans to start testing humanoid robots in their operations. So here they all came, but what about ATLAS?
With Hyundai, a major automaker, now owning Boston Dynamics, ATLAS also seemed to have a window to get a shot at the assembly line. But nothing…until now.
In our ROBOT VIDEO OF THE WEEK (below), we see ATLAS picking and placing automotive struts. The demo showcases that Atlas can perform object recognition using only its onboard sensors. In the demo, Atlas grasped automotive struts from a vertical storage unit using its grippers and then placed them horizontally onto a flow cart. This demonstrates Atlas's advanced capabilities in the field of robotics.
Boston Dynamics’ chief strategy officer, Marc Theermann, and VP of marketing and communication, Nikolas Noel, also shared some fun shots about why they picked this use case for ATLAS.
So is ATLAS about to join all of the humanoid robots we know were in part inspired by this OG? It looks more likely than ever before while I write this. My hope is that ATLAS, which is just over 10 years old, still continues to have a major role to play in the development of humanoid robotics. ASIMO retired after 22 years. So, as ATLAS enters the second half of his “career,” why not take that next bold step into commercialization? If we humans can have multiple chapters to our lives and careers, why not a robot?
Let this Old Dog try some New Tricks!
Robot News Of The Week
Starship Technologies raises $90M as its sidewalk robots pass 6M deliveries
Sidewalk delivery robot services seem to be struggling, but Starship Technologies, a startup from Estonia, believes that the concept is profitable. The company was an early pioneer in the delivery robotics space and has now raised $90 million in funding to scale up its operations to meet market demand. Two previous investors, Plural and Iconical, led this latest funding round. Plural is a VC with roots in Estonia and London that recently announced a $430 million fund, whereas Iconical is a London-based investor backed by Janus Friis.
Friis is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Starship Technologies, along with co-founding Skype. Starship has now raised a total of $230 million, with previous backers including NordicNinja, Morpheus Ventures, the European Investment Bank, and TDC.
Anyware Robotics unveiled Pixmo, its AI-powered robotic solution for container and truck unloading. The mobile robots can unload boxes more safely, cost-effectively, reliably, and quickly than humans can, without related injuries. Pixmo robots are ideal for unloading at transload facilities, cross docks, 3PLs, distribution centers, and e-commerce fulfillment warehouses. The robots can be installed within days and provide enhanced operational efficiencies and predictability. Anyware Robotics was founded in January 2023 and raised $5 million in seed capital in March 2023.
Autonomous vehicles drove more than 9M miles in California in 2023
According to the California DMV, autonomous vehicle companies drove 9,068,861 test miles in autonomous mode from Dec. 2022 – Nov. 2023. Of these miles, 3,267,792 were completely driverless, and 5,801,069 were with a safety driver. The reports provide insights into AV testing in the state, but they're not a good indicator of how these companies' operations compare to each other. 38 companies have valid permits to test AVs with safety drivers, and six of them can test without safety drivers. The permit of Pegasus Technology Holdings was suspended for failing to submit a disengagement report.
Robot Research In The News
Agile But Safe: Learning Collision-Free High-Speed Legged Locomotion
Legged robots that navigate cluttered environments must be agile and safe to complete tasks efficiently and avoid collisions with people or obstacles. Current research either focuses on developing conservative controllers that limit the speed to ensure safety or on agility without considering the potential for fatal collisions. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and ETH Zürich have introduced a new learning-based control framework called 𝐀𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐒𝐚𝐟𝐞 (𝐀𝐁𝐒), enabling quadrupedal robots to move swiftly without collisions.
ABS is based on two policies: an agile policy that allows for agile motor skills while navigating obstacles and a recovery policy that prevents failures. These policies work together to achieve high-speed and collision-free navigation. ABS uses a learned control-theoretic reach-avoid value network to govern the policy switch and guide the recovery policy as an objective function, ensuring that the robot is safe in a closed loop.
The training process involves learning the agile policy, the reach-avoid value network, the recovery policy, and an exteroception representation network, all in simulation. Once these modules are trained, they can be directly deployed in the real world with onboard sensing and computation, allowing for high-speed and collision-free navigation in confined indoor and outdoor spaces with both static and dynamic obstacles.
AI-powered robot guide dogs developed for visually impaired
The University of Glasgow's assistive technology project has developed an AI-powered four-legged robot called RoboGuide, capable of communicating with its users. The aim of this robotic pooch is to help blind and partially sighted people navigate indoor public spaces, such as shopping centers, museums, and hospitals. Researchers at the university have also developed a function for the robot to provide verbal responses, with the hope of having intelligent conversations with its users.
Robot Workforce Stories Of The Week
MassTech collaborative launches new $5 million initiative to boost statewide robotics sector
MassTech has invested $5 million to boost the robotics sector in the state. They have created a new department within the Innovation Institute to lead a cluster development effort. Peter Haas, an experienced leader in the field, will be the director of the department.
The Department of Defense has announced its renewed commitment to the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute based in Pittsburgh. A $35.4 million contract has been awarded to support the development of a robotic workforce over the next five years. The ARM Institute and the Department of Defense have been working together for seven years to strengthen U.S. manufacturing through advanced robotics, AI technologies, and workforce development. According to Greg Hudas, DoD program manager for the ARM Institute, this partnership will continue to innovate and push progress to new heights for the benefit of the nation and the warfighter.
Robot Video Of The Week
Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot can now learn new skills, such as picking up objects and sliding them onto shelves, as seen in the video below, where it picks up 30-pound car struts. The ability to perform such complex maneuvers is crucial for Atlas and other bipedal robots being tested by companies such as Tesla, BMW, and Amazon if they aim to surpass human capabilities.
Upcoming Robot Events
Mar. 11-14 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (Boulder, CO)
Mar. 11-14 MODEX (Atlanta, GA)
Mar. 25-27 International Conference on Industrial Technology (Bristol, UK)
Apr. 7-10 Haptics Symposium (Los Angeles, CA)
Apr. 14-17 International Conference on Soft Robotics (San Diego, CA)
May 1-2 The Robotics Summit & Expo (Boston, MA)
May 13-17 IEEE-ICRA (Yokohama, Japan)
June 24-27 International Conference on Space Robotics (Luxemborg)
July 2-4 International Workshop on Robot Motion and Control (Poznan, Poland)
July 8-12 American Control Conference (Toronto, Canada)
Oct. 16-17 RoboBusiness (Santa Clara, CA)
Oct. 28-Nov. 1 ASTM Intl. Conference on Advanced Manufacturing (Atlanta, GA)
Nov. 22-24 Humanoids 2024 (Nancy, France)