You may have heard of the robotics company Boston Dynamics, or at least seen many of their videos on YouTube. Especially the ones where humans are trying their hardest to kick over four legged robots built for stability.
You may have also watched any of the films from the Terminator franchise and wondered “what if?”
Well Boston Dynamics may be the closest thing you could get to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character. Many of their robots are being built to run, jump and tackle tough terrain with the main purpose of being used in a military sense.
One of their robots in particular paints a very scary picture. Meet Atlas a humanoid robot who’s movement resembles that of childhood nightmares.
The moment where Atlas comes out of the woods could quite easily be from one of the Terminator movies as he creeps up on unsuspecting human campers before firing off a few rounds.
The Boston Dynamics Line-up
Handle
SpotMini
Atlas
Spot
LS3
WildCat
BigDog
SandFlea
RHex
The Truth
In reality these robots are going to be a good thing for the modern world and our future. They’re being built with the purpose of making human life easier and safer.
However there’s always the concern that these robots will go crazy and “terminate” every single one of us becoming the dominant species on our planet.
It’s the human movement that creeps most people out. When you see a robot moving along on wheels resembling a hoover, it’s easy to remain calm. However seeing a robot walk on two legs flexing broad shoulders and a human like face can be somewhat concerning.
Boston Dynamics
Regardless of these Hollywood concerns, it’s easy to see that the people at Boston Dynamics are doing some great work.
The robots they currently have are already impressive, yet they would admit that the current models are only stage one of what they hope to achieve in the future.
The robots look extremely cool and Boston Dynamics have plans to give the models a much more realistic look as the technology advances.
As for the extinction of the human race, we’ll have to see, but in the meantime we can enjoy the sight of some of the coolest robots ever built moving like real life creatures, and eventually better than.
