What can Boston Dynamics’ amazing robots be used for? – Franceinfo

They are able to walk, jump, dance to rock. But also to climb stairs, to open doors, and they adapt better and better to the outside world. In recent years, the robots of the American firm Boston Dynamics have become stars on the internet, garnering millions of views with each new demonstration video.

A relatively recent success for the company, which will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary in 2022, and which is timidly starting to market its machines. On oil platforms, in factories, in the heart of warehouses … The creatures of the brand are gradually finding their place and opening up a new dimension for robotics on a daily basis.

Before becoming a benchmark in robotics, Boston Dynamics started out small. The company was founded in 1992 by Marc Raibert, then a professor at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It is in this Northeastern American state that the firm is also installed, barely an hour from Boston, the state capital. In the mid-2000s, his robotic creations received sizeable financial support: that of Darpa, the Agency in charge of research and development on behalf of the American Defense.

It is therefore no coincidence that the first machines from Boston Dynamics have a very military aspect. Evidenced by “BigDog”, the huge four-legged creature designed in 2004 to serve as a mule on the battlefield. Six-legged machines followed, a remote-controlled car capable of jumping 10 meters high and several concepts of quadrupeds as robust (the “LS3” robot could carry 180 kg of payload) as fast (its successor, “WildCat”, could gallop at 32 km / h).

Besides Darpa, Boston Dynamics quickly caught the attention of tech giants. The company was acquired by Google in 2013 and then acquired in 2017 by the Japanese mobile operator SoftBank, which eventually ceded 80% of the shares and control of Boston Dynamics to the South Korean automaker Hyundai. The range of robots has recently stabilized around four models: the humanoid “Atlas”, the quadruped “Spot” and the articulated arms “Pick” and “Handle”, which we can all see dancing with passion in the video below.

Very discreet, Boston Dynamics has long kept its robots warm in its laboratories, allowing only a very small number of tests by third parties. Contacted by franceinfo, the firm did not wish to answer our questions but assures that its objectives remain unchanged since its inception: to produce robots capable of “working with humans to reduce risks, improve productivity and the quality of life for everyone”.

Behind this speech, and faced with the fears generated by the astonishing agility of its robots, Boston Dynamics has adopted an ethics charter (link in English), in which it prohibits any transformation of its machines “in weapons or in autonomous targeting systems”, also prohibiting “any use that does not respect privacy and fundamental rights”. If this last point comes up often in the statements of Robert Playter, the current CEO of the firm, it is because many police officers and soldiers around the world train with robot-dogs of Boston Dynamics, which are now available for sale.

With its 32 kilos and its 60 centimeters high, “Spot” is not a dog like the others. He is the ambassador for Boston Dynamics, which has let a handful of institutions try it out in real life in recent years. This new best friend of man, all dressed in yellow, was indeed seen as well during exercises at the military academy of Saint-Cyr, in France, than in parks in Singapore, where he asked users to respect safety distances to fight against the Covid-19 epidemic.

In June 2020, it is this robot that Boston Dynamics brought to the market, a great first for the company. It is now possible to buy a “Spot” at the price of 74,500 dollars each (that is to say a little over 64,000 euros), without forgetting to first fill out a detailed form on the manufacturer’s website, which closely monitors the use of his creatures. With his four legs and its 400 units sold in 2020 according to the Bloomberg website, “Spot” is attracting increasing interest around the world.

“There is a real recognition of quadrupedal robots, explains to franceinfo Justin Carpentier, researcher at the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (Inria), both in academia and in industry. ” This format is more stable, lighter, more economical than current bipedal robots, emphasizes the specialist, and above all “sufficiently mature” to be marketed, even if the uses remain limited.

“They are inspection robots, which will have little or no physical interactions with their environment.”

Justin Carpentier, robotics researcher at Inria

to franceinfo

For its new owners, “Spot” represents a good alternative to drones as well as surveillance cameras. The battery-powered robot dog is currently in use on BP’s oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. He also inspects the sites of Pomerleau, a Canadian construction giant, and the drug factories of the Merck laboratory in Germany. He is also in the process of being sent to patrol dangerous mines and industrial sites, in place of humans.

“Keeping man away from risk is surely the main use of a robot”, explains to franceinfo Serena Ivaldi, specialist in human-robot interaction at Inria in Nancy. The researcher prefers to use the term “cobot”, to emphasize her ability to collaborate with humans. More than a subordinate, the cobot could very soon understand human gestures, or even anticipate it, to become an exceptional colleague.

Closer to home, sales of “Spot” are in any case going well and we will soon meet him in our city centers, him or one of his less expensive cousins. “Over the past five years, other companies have offered similar solutions at significantly lower prices.”, explains Justin Carpentier, who expects a general decline in prices in the near future, “on the same model as IT, which has become mainstream”. The latest example, the Chinese company Xiaomi offers its own robot dog for only 1,300 euros. At this price, however, we must expect very basic functionalities (walking, resting, reaction to a few orders), warn specialists.

Under the eyes of the whole world, the curious humanoid “Atlas” has been making progress since its launch in 2013 during a robotics competition organized (and funded) by Darpa. The stocky robot (1.50 m for 89 kilos) was notably filmed moving boxes, doing somersaults and crossing obstacle courses. He is also able to open doors and barely falters when pushed. As much feats that fascinate researchers.

For each new Boston Dynamics video, Justin Carpentier and his colleagues at Inria organize group screenings, for example, which lead to “exchange and reverse engineering sessions”. The movements of the “Atlas” robot, its hydraulic joints, the spacing of its hips: everything is scrutinized. “We also have an eye expert, which allows us to understand the flaws and limits of this approach “, specifies the researcher.

Because as impressive as it may be, “Atlas” is not about to land in our daily lives. The robot, estimated at two million dollars per unit by specialists interviewed by Franceinfo, remains very fragile and complex to program. “Such a robot is several million lines of code, explains to franceinfo Philippe Souères, director of the Robotics department of Systems Analysis and Architecture Laboratory (LAAS), and for a humanoid bends down to pick up an object from the ground, for example, there are endless ways to coordinate its joints. “

It must be said that the movements of “Atlas” can sometimes be fatal to him. Boston Dynamics does not hide it, it happens that the hydraulic circuits of the robot literally explode under pressure. And company videos should be taken with a grain of salt, warns Justin Carpentier, because they are selected “among dozens, maybe hundreds of takes”.

For Boston Dynamics, as in the opinion of specialists, “Atlas” remains above all an object of research. “Progress on a humanoid robot, the most difficult form to design, will benefit all robotics research”, recalls Serena Ivaldi. A scenario is essential in the scientific community: before strolling in our streets, “Atlas” will most certainly be used to develop exoskeletons, allowing the movement of disabled people or assistance in arduous, even dangerous industrial tasks.

Despite these recent advances, therobotics is a project that has just started. “We are still in prehistory”, according to Philippe Souères. Will we have to wait another thirty years before robots really impose themselves in our daily lives? The director of LAAS is puzzled. He is wary of announcements sometimes “fun”, like those of Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla, who promised at the end of August the imminent launch of a “revolutionary” humanoid robot. “No technical question was addressed, notes Philippe Souères. Just for the hand described by Elon Musk, we are still very far from approaching it. ”

But the interest of the American billionaire could nevertheless represent the craze long awaited by roboticists. “When we know the financial power of this person, if he decides tomorrow to create around him a powerful team of engineers to work in humanoid robotics, he will certainly generate considerable progress”, advances Philippe Souères. If robots are not yet capable of dreaming, “those who design them have never stopped”, he smiles.