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Technology Stocks : Investing in Exponential Growth
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From: Paul H. Christiansen1/13/2018 9:36:50 AM
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The Year Robots Backflipped Their Way into Our Hearts



A robot revolution has begun. Intelligent machines now routinely patrol malls, hospitals, and highways, and the machines are becoming increasingly proficient at everything from picking fruit to performing surgery. Automation is set to transform our lives.

A robot unveiled recently is capable of a few jaw-dropping parkour moves, including this effortless-looking backflip. The acrobatic bot was developed by Boston Dynamics, and its agility suggests the company is making rapid progress toward training humanoid machines to navigate complex and challenging environments.

For anyone who watched the DARPA Robotics Challenge in 2015, where an earlier version of the same bot struggled with simple tasks like opening doors and stepping out of a car, the backflip certainly seems like a remarkable advance. It isn’t clear whether the robot can pull off the stunt consistently or adapt to different setups, however.

Boston Dynamics was among several high-profile robotics companies snapped up by Google in whirlwind spending spree in 2014. The company was founded by Marc Raibert, a roboticist who pioneered the development of dynamic balancing algorithms for legged robots and who was previously a professor at MIT. The robots’ remarkable movements sometimes make the machines seem uncannily alive.

Legged robots remain very expensive and difficult to commercialize. So it came as little surprise when Google sold Boston Dynamics to Japan’s Softbank earlier in the year. Still, the company is making advances, such as a four-legged bot called Spot that it also showed off last month. This one shows that the company is making strides in miniaturization and control.

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