Atlas from Boston Dynamics learned to understand the purpose of objects in space

Boston Dynamics engineers demonstrated how their humanoid robot Atlas perceives the surrounding world, and this brings machine interaction with reality to a completely new level. Now this is not just a mechanism with cameras, but real physical intelligence with deep understanding of space and context. Atlas is capable of recognizing object shapes and understanding their purpose in real environment. And its perception system combines 2D and 3D vision, using special key points for precise spatial orientation.

Engineers also taught the robot to track object poses considering their movement and even when they are partially covered by other items. The most impressive achievement is the fusion of visual data, kinematics and object knowledge into a unified comprehensive system. Atlas possesses ultra-precise calibration for coordination between “eyes” and “hands”. This allows the robot not just to find an object, but to truly understand what it is, what it’s intended for and how to best grasp it, even if the object is half-hidden from cameras.

Boston Dynamics’ artificial intelligence team is now working on creating a unified model that will fully combine perception and control. This is a crucial step from simple “spatial artificial intelligence” to full-fledged physical intelligence capable of naturally interacting with our world.