Boston Dynamics has been wowing the world with their robotic engineering for years. As time goes by, the American engineering and robotics design company have periodically shared updates of their progress and today brought one of the eeriest videos yet.
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In the latest 45-second clip, a four-legged robot can be seen approaching a closed door. The robot angles it's body to get a proper look at the obstruction in its path, a doorknob. The robot then signals for help, but not from an engineer, from another robot.
The second four-legged robot comes around the corner and this one has a large protrusion coming from where the head would be. As the second robot gets to the door, it analyzes the doorknob and extends a robotic arm from its shoulders.
The robotic arm extruding from the mechanical dog successfully operates the door's handle and pulls it open, a complex motion requiring the use of all of its limbs.
The second robot then cheerfully prances through the opening as if it is flattered by the polite act of holding the door open. Then, the second robot manipulates it's arm so that it can walk through the doorway as the outreached arm rotates to keep the door open.
The action of opening a door may seem simple, but the amount of complex engineering required to give "vision" to the robots, hardware to analyze that vision, and the algorithms required to calculate mass, weight, and motion represent a massive advancement in robotic engineering.
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<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Credit: Boston Dynamics</span>
The four-legged robotic dogs are called "SpotMini" and possess the dexterity of world-class pianist. The newest iterations of Boston Dynamic's robotic dogs are a far leap from their earlier versions which were clunky, clumsy and much larger.
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Source: https://youtu.be/fUyU3lKzoio
