Boston Dynamics Wednesday announced a partnership designed to bring improved strengthening learning to its Electric atlas humanoid robot. The equality is with the Robotics & AI -Institute (RAI -Institute)Earlier known as the Boston Dynamics Ai Institute.
Both organizations were founded by Marc Raibert, a former MIT professor, who served as CEO of Boston Dynamics for 30 years. The institute, founded in 2022, allows Raibert to continue the research, which served as the foundation for Boston Dynamics.
Both have links to Hyundai. The Korean driver acquired Boston Dynamics back in 2021; Hyundai also funds the institute, giving Raibert a free Rein to explore more experimental and bleeding technologies than is possible in a trading company. The Institute mirrors the creation of three from Toyota, for Toyota Research Institute, which announced their own partnership With Boston Dynamics in October, focused on the use of large behavioral models. (LBMS).
The twin partnerships are designed to improve the way Boston Dynamics’ electric atlas humanoid is learning new tasks. The robotics and AI institute agreement is specifically focused on strengthening learning, a method that works by test and error, similar to the way humans and animals learn. Reinforcing learning has traditionally been extremely intense, although the creation of effective simulation has allowed many processes at the same time in a virtual environment.
The Boston Dynamics/Rai Institute Union started operating earlier this month in Massachusetts. It is the latest in some collaborations between the couple, including a joint effort to develop a strengthening learning research for Boston Dynamics’ quadruped robot (which is its family robot “Dog”). The new work focuses on both transferring simulation-based learning to real-world settings and improving how the company’s humanoid atlas is moving and interacting with physical environments.
Belonging to the latter, Boston Dynamics notes “dynamic running and full body manipulation of heavy objects.” Both are examples of actions that require synchronization of the legs and arms. The Humanoid’s biped form factor presents some unique challenges – and opportunities – compared to Spot. Each activity is also subject to a wide range of forces, including balance, strength, resistance and motion.
A bigger image, Raibert notes in a statement, “Our goal of RAI is to develop technology that enables future generations of smart machines. Working on Atlas with Boston Dynamics enables us to make advances in strengthening learning about discussibly the most sophisticated humanoid robot available. This work will play an important role in promoting the skills of Humanoids not only expanding their ability, but also simplifying the process to achieve new skills.
News about the partnership arrives a day after the figure AI founder and Director General Brett Adcock announced That the company Bay Area is leaving a partnership with Openai in favor of developing its own domestic models.
“We have found that in order to solve an embodied AI scale in the real world, you must vertically integrate AI,” the executive told Techcrunch. “We cannot get out of the same reason that we cannot externalize our hardware.”
Figure has determined that the best AI models for its humanoid are those that are developed specifically for its robots, in-house. Openai’s approach to embedded intelligence – meaning in physical form – of course less focused considering the size and scope of the Chatgpt manufacturer. This news also came to the heels of rumors that Openai explored the creation of its own humanoid robots.
Most companies involved in humanoid space work on their own planned AI models. This certainly applies to Boston Dynamics, who has decades of experience to develop programs to work on its own unique robotics systems. While the RAI Institute is technically a separate organization, both share a parent company, founder and, presumably, common goals.
