Talks to Watch

More Parkour Atlas

16.9M views · Sep 24, 2019 · 0:39 · 0 HN recommenders · 4 mentions · discussed 2020–2021

Boston Dynamics shows its Atlas humanoid robot performing a gymnastics and parkour routine, using optimization-generated motions and a model predictive controller.

Why Hacker News points people here: Used as a go-to demonstration of how far dynamic robot locomotion has come.

“Here's Boston Dynamic's robot doing Parkour and gymnastics”HN comment, 2020

What Hacker News said 4

Cites itnlJun 2020

Robot walking at human level.

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This is... wrong? Scratching a face is a matter of fine motor control. [1] is an example from 2011 which did this, as well as face shaving. Walking is slightly tricky because it's such a dynamic system, but is now human level[2], and there was never really any question that it would be possible. On the other hand, the state of the art in Go systems before Alpha Go (the one trained off games, not Alpha Zero) couldn't beat competent amateurs. No one had really considered the learn-from-zero-knowledge approach of Alpha Zero even for easier games like chess. [1] link [2] this video

in “How much did AlphaGo Zero cost? (2018)” · view on HN
Cites itnlJun 2020

“Here's Boston Dynamic's robot doing Parkour and gymnastics”

Atlas doing parkour and gymnastics.

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Yes. Here's Boston Dynamic's robot doing Parkour and gymnastics: this video It's not national level gymnastics but it's better co-ordinated than most humans.

in “How much did AlphaGo Zero cost? (2018)” · view on HN
Cites itrsecoraJul 2020

“Boston dynamics parkour.”

Counterexample to claim that walking skill cannot be articulated.

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>>> We know this phenomenon from everyday life. Most of us are experts on walking. However, if we try to articulate how we walk, we certainly give a description that does not capture the skills involved in walking. All the article is based on statements like the previous one. Scientifically is possible to nullify it with a counterargument. [1] Boston dynamics Atlas. link [2] Boston dynamics parkour. this video QED.

in “Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized” · view on HN
Cites itshadowgovtAug 2021

“It's interesting to see how this has progressed”

Earlier Atlas video showing progress.

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It's interesting to see how this has progressed from their video two years ago [ link ] and one year ago [ this video ]