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Robotics

See Boston Dynamics' Robots Bust Freakishly Good Moves On the Dance Floor (hothardware.com) 59

Posted by EditorDavid from the do-you-love-it? dept.
MojoKid summarizes an article from Hot Hardware: Boston Dynamics made news recently when 80% of the company was acquired by Hyundai. The company's family of robots is always impressive and now it appears they're having some fun to celebrate the close of 2020. Boston Dynamics' robot dog, Spot and its humanoid-like Atlas bot friend, were joined by their oddball sibling Handle to shake their booties on the dance floor to "Do You Love Me" by The Contours.

The video starts off impressive enough with just a single Atlas showing its incredible dexterity while busting out some sweet moves that would leave even the late Patrick Swayze envious. However, as the routine progresses, the camera pulls back to show that another twin Atlas is dancing along with the first one as they show off their synchronized and fresh rug-cutting ways. As this robotic soul train continues to roll, Spot the dog saunters in to join in on the fun with the distinct flare that only rover can bring. The entire 3 minute clip is really a marvel to behold, and maybe even slightly unsettling for some that might not fully welcome our robot overlords.
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See Boston Dynamics' Robots Bust Freakishly Good Moves On the Dance Floor More

See Boston Dynamics' Robots Bust Freakishly Good Moves On the Dance Floor

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  • It's just a PR piece... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Saturday January 02, 2021 @04:55PM (#60888500)

    But it's a very well done PR piece. I quite enjoyed it.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday January 02, 2021 @05:24PM (#60888554)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        ... except that Boston Dynamics has been making nifty demo videos for 15 or 20 years now, and has yet to actually deliver a significant number of robots that were actually useful for anybody. One begins to think that they're really more of a video company than a robot company...

        • I’m not so sure; SpaceX seems to use them effectively, and there are similar opportunities for a number of organizations. It just needs to become “easier.”

    • Yah, pretty cool. Three days old and already 20M hits (although not kpop numbers, still impressive). Like a roadster in space: engineering as art.

    • Boston Dynamics is own by Hyundai. should be dancing to Kpop. BTS

      • But if you want the scary dystopian robot dogs take over the world disaster movie to be truly frightening, it really needs to be Made in Korea.

        American scary dystopian robot dogs were never going to take over the world with the same amount of terror.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      It may a real advance if it is real. It is not cgi, but if it is just isolated successful movement strung together, then it is not so impressive. The ability to balance and change direction quickly is what makes a dancer impressive. The robots showed significant ability. But without knowing how continuous this is we donâ(TM)t really know the true measure of the robot

      • Did you miss the fact that almost the first two minutes of the video is a single camera cut? I'd say that's pretty conclusive evidence that they can string these moves together quite effectively. It look to me like the cuts in the last minute were done more for aesthetic reasons than anything else.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by MobyDisk ( 75490 )

        You should look up other videos done by Boston Dynamics. They've been doing dynamic for years.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ChoGGi ( 522069 )

        Check out a video of people pushing them around, the robots know how to adjust to changing dynamics.
        https://youtu.be/aFuA50H9uek [youtu.be]
        https://youtu.be/rVlhMGQgDkY?t... [youtu.be]

    • It is a brilliant marketing piece. I would love to have a robot that can fetch packages and bring them inside... $70k plus is a bit steep for that need, but I could be a customer at $10k. (We need a gate at the street to keep people from blocking our driveway, but we get a lot of packages. The property is only 12’ wide at the street, so there aren’t a lot of easy ways to deal with packages. Eventually I will break down and make a remote controlled cart that brings stuff to the garage, but th
    • Hi..I was a really bad..girl. Punish me with your dick in my mouth!! >> http://gg.gg/nnw3n [gg.gg]

  • Dance moves (Score:3)

    by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Saturday January 02, 2021 @05:06PM (#60888524) Journal

    busting out some sweet moves that would leave even the late Patrick Swayze envious

    No lol. It was a bit awkward by human standards.

    I did notice spot doing some jumps that looked very light, and could only have been accomplished by a human having very strong calves.

  • I for one welcome our new... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Oogon ( 1025810 ) on Saturday January 02, 2021 @05:32PM (#60888572) Homepage
    great, now the murder robots can do a victory dance in style after it slays me.

  • So much equipment and... (Score:4, Funny)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Saturday January 02, 2021 @05:41PM (#60888586)

    They didn't get it to do the robot!!!

  • A little too light on the feet, they are... A CGI fest perhaps?
  • The video is certainly very impressive and entertaining.

    However, it did occur to me that this might not all have been shot in one sequence. It is possible that the robots frequently fell over and the final video was spliced together from those occasions where they didn't. However this is not to decry from the considerable achievements on display. Even if it took ten goes to successfully film each section, it would still be very impressive.

    • I posted this on another thread, but it bears repeating to avoid conspiracy theories developing: yes, it is real. Boston Dynamics has a decades-long, well-documented series of ever improving videos, and their products are available for sale (albeit at very high prices). Plenty of people have seen the robots up close. The "dogs" are independently reported to be on patrol in some parts of Singapore: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/te... [bbc.com]
      It is highly unlikely that any video tricks were used to make the continuous t

  • Are the move pre-programmed, or do they robots react to the music? I cannot find that information.

    • Re:Pre-programmed? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Nkwe ( 604125 ) on Saturday January 02, 2021 @06:32PM (#60888724)

      Are the move pre-programmed, or do they robots react to the music? I cannot find that information.

      Likely pre-programmed. I would love to hear what it actually sounds like in the room (without the music). I suspect it's actually quite loud, mechanical, (and cool) sounding. I would also be curious as to what percentage of a charge is used up by a routine like that. Many of the past demo videos I have seen show the robots tethered to a power source, here we see then running on stored power.

      • Definitely pre-programmed.

        Also probably shot over several weeks, one cut at a time.
        I've worked in TV before. Junkyard Wars supposedly happened in one day. In reality, it took most of a week, including the no-camera rebuild and testing day right before the competition.

        In this video, every time the scene cuts from one angle to another was an opportunity to recharge and load the next sequence, or go back and correct a flaw in the previous sequence.

  • I've never watched DWTS, but I imagine this would be similar, but with characters I`ve never seen.
  • I'm not totally convinced.

    • Yes, it is real. Boston Dynamics has a decades-long, well-documented series of ever improving videos, and their products are available for sale (albeit at very high prices). Plenty of people have seen the robots up close. The âoedogsâ are independently reported to be on patrol in some parts of Singapore, with movements completely consistent with this new dance video: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/te... [bbc.com]

  • ...is, well, you know.... [youtube.com]

  • Not really. The robot is doing the moves competently, but without style. I'd put its dance competence at "basic". If they sought the help of a ballroom pro, they could make it much better. But still, it's great progress in robotics.

  • I'd love to see these robots compete in some of those robot wars on TV. I'll bet they could literally kick some butt!

  • Until I see twerking we're not there yet.

  • I for one welcome our new dancing robot overlords.
  • I said COOKIE robots, not BOOGIE robots!

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