Friday, March 29, 2019

Box Mover "Handle" by Boston Dynamics


Yesterday Boston Dynamics released this video of a robot called "Handle" that can move and stack boxes in a warehouse. While their engineers are still building robots based on the design of humans or quadrupeds, their design evolution has taken them into realms where biological systems can't go. The counterbalance configuration, duo-wheel drivers, and lifting "arm-head" are ingenious departures from vertebrate analogs. (Link to YouTube video)

When the early pioneers of human flight realized that aeroplanes don't need to look and function like birds, they were able to arrive at designs that really worked.

6 comments:

Susan Krzywicki said...

It looks like a bird delivering food to a baby bird. And there is that undercarriage thing that swings back and hesitates oddly - just like a bird. You can see it at the very beginning.

Oh, and the Captcha thing seems to take forever - is it just me or do lots fo people have to click a lot of images?

James Gurney said...

Susan, sorry to put you through the captcha gate, but the blog has been getting a lot of spam comments lately.

Pierre Fontaine said...

I was going to say the same thing as Susan....the robot doesn't need to replicate a human's physiology but gosh darn if it doesn't look like a giant duck. The work that Boston Dynamics is absolutely amazing nonetheless!

ferrelli said...

It may be amazing to some but it is kind of creepy to me!

Ted B. said...

Very elegant.
...So much for that unskilled labor at $15./hour min. wage.

James Gurney said...

Ted, yeah, I feel like the horse-cart driver admiring an early automobile.

Ferrelli. It hits me emotionally, too, maybe because I can't avoid imputing intention to it, and looking for a head and eyes.

Pierre, it reminded me of the water-drinking tipping duck toy I had as a kid.