Aaron Saunders
Vice President Engineering
Boston Dynamics
Waltham, United States

"Building the World's Most Dynamic Humanoid Robot"

A key to high performance mobile robotics is maximizing strength to weight. Powerful, low inertia limbs with high bandwidth actuation enable robots to take on elements of dynamic balance that make them move more like people and animals. Atlas, weighing in at 80 kg and standing 1.5m tall, is the latest in a line of advanced battery powered humanoid robots being developed at Boston Dynamics to push progress in these key areas. This talk will cover recent developments on the Atlas program along with lessons learned and some of the obstacles we face in building advanced robots. We will show how the combination of Direct Metal Manufacturing (DMM), or 3D printing, and advances in human scale hydraulic actuation have let us create a compact robot with high strength-to-weight ratio. These designs along with advances in whole-body balance, give Atlas the ability to manipulate objects in its environment, travel on rough terrain, and perform dynamic tasks approaching what an average person can do.