Aug. 20 (UPI) -- A humanoid robot can now perform complex tasks with a large behavior model without needing hand programming for each task.
Boston Dynamics and Toyota Research Institute announced this breakthrough Wednesday in a press release.
In a video jointly released by the two organizations, Atlas performs a long, continuous sequence of complex tasks that require combining object manipulation with locomotion. By adopting LBMs, new capabilities that would have been laboriously hand-programmed in the past can now be added quickly and without writing a single new line of code.
The video shows Atlas using whole-body movements, such as walking, crouching, and lifting, to accomplish a series of packing, sorting, and organizing tasks. Throughout the sequences, researchers interject unexpected physical challenges mid-task, such as closing the lid of a box and sliding it across the floor, requiring Atlas to self-adjust in response.
Humanoid robots that have demonstrated this capability before typically separate the low-level walking and balancing control from the control of the arms for manipulation. But a single large behavior model has direct control of Atlas, treating the hands and feet almost identically.
