How Boston Dynamics Got Its Atlas Humanoid Robot Fit for the World Cup
Before Atlas the humanoid robot strode onto the pitch to hand the ball to the referee during Norway and Brazil's World Cup match on Sunday, it hinted at its own soccer skills on the sidelines.
At the end of halftime, Atlas emerged from the players' tunnel and replicated a series of iconic goal celebrations before passing the ball. But it seems the robot was being shy, because it's actually capable of far more.
In a series of videos published to YouTube, Boston Dynamics shows how it trained the humanoid robot to perform a number of soccer tricks, including its own version of the rabona -- a complex move in which the kicking leg crosses behind the standing leg to strike the ball -- that the company calls the ghost rabona.
When I met the latest version of Atlasat CES back in January, I had no idea that by...
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