My Thoughts on the New Atlas Robot


Robots are getting more and more humanoid by the year. Boston Dynamics is a company that makes a lot of robots that are humanoid. One robot that they made is called Atlas. Atlas is a robot that can pick things up and move like a human. Although this is a huge step taken by Boston Dynamics they did not stop there and kept on going. In 11 years Boston Dynamic has come back with an even more enhanced robot.

This robot is very unique because it is very flexible. In the video that Boston Dynamics had made the robot starts off lying down on the floor then comes to life and bends its leg over its body then stands up and twists its whole upper body. Not only is it flexible but the design of the robot is more clean. Atlas had a lot of cables and wires sticking out but the new robot had nothing sticking out. The shape of the body was changed drastically. Atlas had a very bulky body shape but the new robot has a very slim and simple body shape almost as if it were human. Another enhancement that Boston Dynamics has made was the head. The head is a cylinder shape and it has a ring of light on it. It also has a neck below the head. 

When I first saw Atlas 7 years ago I was surprised because I didn’t know that anyone could make a robot that can do what humans can do. It can walk, pick up things and dance. In one of the articles that I read, one of the hardest parts of making a humanoid robot was the most basic thing we humans do every single day, standing up. Humans are always unbalanced when we walk but right before a fall, we catch ourselves by putting our legs forward. Do this many times and you are officially walking. 

The reason why making the robot’s stand up is so hard is because robots aren't humans. They can not learn from their mistakes. Instead, they need code and good engineering. This means that robots are always unbalanced when they walk so the engineers must make a design that will make the robot perfectly balanced so that it can walk. The reason it was so fascinating to me was because something that humans do when they are first born is hard for robots. 

Before I read this article I thought that robots are things that will replace us humans and I was scared. Instead, they can’t even walk so I was reassured. But after 11 years Boston Dynamics has made a robot that can not only walk but hold things. I congratulate the people who made this robot, but I must say that humans are curious animals and they will take whatever it takes to solve a question. Robots are getting more and more smarter and enhanced by the year. The only thing I wanted to say in this article was think about the future, one misstep in coding a robot can compromise our future.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How “The Showdown” Shows That Bystanders Are Contagious

Image
People will follow what others do that they think is right but they won't stand up and do it themselves if no one does it first. In the short story “The Showdown” by Shirley Jackson,  everyone only stands up for themselves and does not for anyone else. Billy is our protagonist and he is a kid who loves fishing. Every day, when he is walking back from fishing, he looks at the street and sees Susy’s dad kill Tom because he wants him to stay away from Susy. He doesn't think much of it and walks home. He comes back home late every day and every day he doesn't get to eat dinner. One day he questions why he’s always late to eat dinner and finally notices that he is living in a loop where all the events happen over and over again. He doesn’t want to be in this loop anymore so he decides the only way to end the loop is for him to end the death of Tom. On the day that he chooses, he jumps in the middle of Susy’s dad and Tom and takes the hit.        Initially, Billy do...
Read more

How the Short Story "Ruthless" Builds Suspense

Image
  In the short story “Ruthless,” we are introduced to our main character Judson. He is a very arrogant and ruthless person. He doesn't let anyone else touch his belongings in his closet because they are very special to him and if someone does touch them, then he will get really mad at them. He poisons his whiskey bottle to make the thieves learn their lesson and does not call it murder. After a while, he falls and someone gives him the poisoned whiskey to refresh his mind, which kills him.  The way that the author builds suspense early in the story is to put us in the perspective of his wife. This helps the author because it lets him be more vague when he is telling the readers what is going on. If the author puts the perspective of Judson, then we will already know what he is going to do with the bottle so it will not be as suspenseful. But, when you write from the wife’s, perspective she will not know what is going on so it will be more suspenseful. Another suspense-building...
Read more

How The Veldt Shows That AI Can Be Good Or Bad

Image
                                                                                    AI can be both bad and good. This bad and good of AI is something that Ray Bradbury explores in one of his short stories called the Veldt. The Veldt is a dystopian story about a world where robots do everything for you from tying your own shoes to drawing paintings for you. The short story shows us that technology is entertaining and always available, but we also have to be careful about how we use it.  While technology can be tricky in the Veldt it can also be helpful because the nursery helps the kids imagine things and kill time. The nursery is very detailed and the kids can have more imaginative worlds. It takes what the kids read and makes it more realistic. It can also make the worl...
Read more