Last month we brought you leaked footage of Boston Dynamics’ latest robot, Handle, which travels upright on two wheels and can leap over hurdles.
The Google-owned company has since officially unveiled the robot, and this week released a video that showcases the full range of Handle’s capabilities. According to Boston Dynamics, the 6.5ft machine can travel at 9mph, vertically jump four feet in the air, and travel up to 15 miles on a single charge. New tricks on display in the official video include Handle rolling down stairs at speed, tackling ramps and snowy banks, and lifting a crate weighing 100lbs.
According to the MIT spinout, the robot uses both electric motors and hydraulic actuators, incorporating many of the same dynamics, balance and mobile manipulation principles found in its quadruped and biped robots.
It looks (slightly alarmingly) impressive. It wasn’t clear to me from the video whether it was doing these things ‘of its own volition’ or whether it is just a large two-wheeled radio-controlled car. I think there would be a huge sensory and software different between the two.
A great impressing progress in Robotics, indeed.