Future Tense

Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Robot Is Trying to Be the Karate Kid, Crane Kick and All

You may have to work hard to achieve balance in your life, but for the Atlas robot it seems effortless. That’s because Boston Dynamics, now owned by Google, programmed the 6-foot-2, 330-pound robot to balance on concrete blocks like in the 1984 film The Karate Kid.

Atlas, which is also known as Ian, according to 9to5Google, is meant to have human capabilities that will allow it to someday replace people in dangerous situations like emergency response. It can walk on tough terrain, is strong enough to carry heavy equipment, and can even climb. The robot has 28 joints plus cameras and laser sensors that give it depth perception.

Atlas was originally presented in 2013, and Boston Dynamics has worked on a number of improvements since then. A major one on the bucket list is eventually giving Atlas an internal and portable source of power so it doesn’t have to be plugged in. But for now, its balancing skills are pretty awesome.