Boston Dynamics Led a Robot Revolution. Now Its Machines Are Teaching Themselves New Tricks

Marc Raibert, the founder and chairman of Boston Dynamics, gave the world a menagerie of two- and four-legged machines capable of jaw-dropping parkour, infectious dance routines, and industrious shelf stacking.

Raibert is now looking to lead a revolution in robot intelligence as well as acrobatics. And he says that recent advances in machine learning have accelerated his robots’ ability to learn how to perform difficult moves without human help. “The hope is that we'll be able to produce lots of behavior without having to handcraft everything that robots do,” Raibert told me recently.

Boston Dynamics might have pioneered legged robots, but it’s now part of a crowded pack of companies offering robot dogs and humanoids. Only this week, a startup called Figure showed off a new humanoid called Helix, which can apparently unload groceries. Another company, x1, showed off a muscly-looking humanoid called NEO Gamma doing chores around the home. A third, Apptronik, said it plans to scale up the manufacturing of his humanoid, called Apollo. Demos can be misleading, though. Also, few companies disclose how much their humanoids cost, and it is unclear how many of them really expect to sell them as home helpers.

The real test for these robots will be how much they can do independent of human programming and direct control. And that will depend on advancements like the ones Raibert is touting. Last November I wrote about efforts to create entirely new kinds of models for controlling robots. If that work starts to bear fruit we may see humanoids and quadrupeds advance more rapidly.

Boston Dynamics sells a four-legged robot called Spot that is used on oil rigs, construction sites, and other places where wheels struggle with the terrain. The company also makes a humanoid called Atlas for research. Raibert says Boston Dynamics used an artificial intelligence technique called reinforcement learning to upgrade Spot’s ability to run, so that it moves three times faster. The same method is also helping Atlas walk more confidently, Raibert says.