The showcase was accompanied by a behind-the-scenes explanation of the development process for the parkour routine.
Boston Dynamics has published a pair of videos showcasing its Atlas robots completing a complex obstacle course that requires balancing on beams and vaults. The company’s Atlas robotics program is a platform for its engineers to perform research and development on sensory and perception systems. In a sandbox environment, Boston Dynamics tasked two of its Atlas robots with parkouring through various obstacles. The parkour routine entailed one of the two robots running up a series of banked plywood panels, broad jumping a gap, and running up and down a set of stairs. The second robot, meanwhile, was programmed to leap onto a balance beam and follow the same steps as the first robot but in reverse. Both robots then had to finish the routine by performing synchronised backflips. The parkour routine can be viewed on YouTube. When implementing these behaviours, the Atlas robots crashed a lot, Boston Dynamics said in a separate «inside the lab» video.
