Boston Dynamics Atlas humanoid robot does backflip to lose hand in major agility stunt

While Elon Musk predicted that thousands of robots would be working in Tesla's factories by the end of last year, other humanoid robot makers are pushing ahead without much fanfare.

Even if the plethora of Chinese robot startups are discounted, Hyundai has ordered 30,000 units of the next-gen Boston Dynamics Atlas humanoid robot to work in its car factories in the US, for instance.

The upgraded Atlas has more degrees of freedom (DoF), longer autonomy with a self-swappable battery, and better cognitive abilities than ever before. It has been filmed demonstrating its agility during a major publicity stunt during Boston Dynamics' CES presence gone partially wrong. Boston Dynamics has long prided itself on the ability of its humanoid robots to do backflips, as its last prototype was doing them way back in 2017, but the new, way more elegant Atlas has replaced hydraulics with electric motors and did it from a standing position on the ground.

The next-gen robot jumped over backwards and managed to land on its two feet but lost balance upon impact, and its 56 DoF came in handy to quickly restore its poise. Speaking of handy, the landing was so taxing that the hand cap of Atlas flew away while it was flailing its arms around in a desperate attempt to remain upright without falling like the first Russian humanoid robot.

While not of any practical value in a Hyundai car factory, the Atlas backflip on a flat surface is still a major dexterity milestone demonstrating how today's humanoid robots went from awkward to humanlike in the span of a few short years as multibillion-dollar investments poured into the field, aiming to replace dull manual labor. Tesla's valuation has a lot of Optimus robot hopes baked in, but seeing Atlas or XPeng's humanlike robot indicates that it will have a steep hill to climb to place Optimus in the lead.