Robot could go where human rescuers can't

Encountering Atlas on a dark street might be scary.

The humanoid robot, one of the most sophisticated ever, is the size of a Sumo wrestler — 6-foot-2, 330 pounds — yet lean.

But not to worry. Atlas won't turn into a 22nd-century Terminator bent on outsmarting humans and taking over our world — at least that is not the plan.

Atlas, developed by Boston Dynamics in Waltham, Mass., is being designed to help people respond to disasters, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., the same agency that helped hatch the Internet. DARPA's mission is to maintain the U.S. military's technological superiority.

Atlas has won praise for its potential in the field of robotics.

"I think it's great," said David Bruemmer, chief technical officer at 5D Robotics in Carlsbad, Calif., and a DARPA consultant in the 1990s.

"What I would like to see us do is pour our energy into (robotics) that actually helps us interact better with each other," such as making transportation more efficient and effective, Bruemmer said. 5D Robotics, for example, is "working on ways to have Segways (motorized scooters) drive themselves to you wherever you are, ride them only as much as you need to, and jump off," with the vehicle heading to the next customer, he said.

People have been developing robots to be more human-like for decades. In the early 1970s, WABOT-1 could communicate with people in Japanese, walk and grip objects, according to Waseda University in Japan. The robot had the estimated mental capacity of an 18-month-old child.

Honda's ASIMO — a robot that looks like a spaceman and is touted in many of the car company's ads — may be the most famous humanoid robot. But there are many others, including QRIO from Sony, Hubo, a variety of systems from Waseda University, and Anybots, according to Marc Raibert, chief technology officer and chairman of Boston Dynamics. Each robot has different capabilities, he said in an email.

An Anybots robot, for example, looks like a pair of eyes on a canister vacuum cleaner. But they help workers see and hear each other across the globe, according to Anybots website.

As for the future of humanoid robots, "the sky is the limit," Raibert said. "Over the next period, I think we will see a wide variety of robots and applications developed, with various amounts of progress. Your question is a bit like asking the Wright Brothers what the future of airplanes would be: I doubt they could have predicted the variety of uses and widespread use that ensued."

"Ultimately, I don't fear robots," Bruemmer said. "There's no way that robots, in my mind, any time soon are going to wrest control away from us."

But "we will become dependent on machines," he said. "I think that we don't fully understand how difficult it will be eventually, like around 2100. It won't be that robots control the world or anything like that. ... I think we have to be very smart and very careful about how we embrace robots."

Atlas, according to Boston Dynamics, is a highly mobile, humanoid robot designed to handle rough outdoor terrain.

It has an intelligent control system that gives it a sense of balance when it walks, Raibert said. Atlas also has software for visual perception that can provide awareness of the terrain and objects with which it interacts.

The robot can walk while its upper limbs are free to lift, carry and manipulate the environment, according to the company. It is strong and coordinated enough to climb with its hands and feet and move through congested spaces. And its hands will be able to use human tools.

Boston Dynamics is building eight Atlases right now, with more coming later, according to Raibert.

Atlas is basically a shell, and seven teams are developing software that will enhance its capabilities, according to DARPA. At a December competition in Florida, each robot will have to carry out tasks resembling what might be required during a disaster-response scenario.

Six other teams have been picked for the trials, and additional teams and their robots will compete for the first time in the competition, which will be open to the public.

A DARPA official declined a request for an interview, saying all the information about Atlas is on the agency's website.

There was no indication that a robot was running DARPA — yet.