Meet Atlas, The Official Robot Competing in the DARPA Challenge

As we reported before, DARPA issued its latest challenge where they will require a humanoid robot to complete a series of tasks (worthy of an action movie) which include driving a car, breaking down a wall, and using tools - all with the goal of "saving the day" during a mock industrial accident.

Atlas by Boston Dynamics

The challenge officially started today, and Boston Dynamics unveiled the latest version of their humanoid "Atlas" which will be competing. Boston Dynamics was charged with developing the official platform for the competition which needed to be physically capable of accomplishing the various tasks, and they have produced what looks to be a very impressive platform. Check out the video below of an earlier version of the humanoid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqCmX5dMYHg This robot really shows "Terminator-like" performance and we are eager to see the final version in action. However, the teams aspiring to use this platform must first compete in a simulation before they are eligible to use the real robot. Via IEEE Spectrum.