Chris Thorn, Atlas hardware team lead at Boston Dynamics, discusses the new Atlas design with industrial designers Aaron Abroff and James Kucera at Boston Dynamics.
Abroff says Spot’s design started with making an unfamiliar robot work as a product, with protective cladding and room for customer equipment. Stretch was shaped for warehouses, while Atlas is designed for manufacturing tasks that call for humanlike capabilities without copying human proportions.
Kucera describes design priorities including round-the-clock uptime, broad joint movement, durability, and quick repairs. Atlas uses two batteries so it can replace one while continuing to operate. Shared actuators and interchangeable limbs simplify production, maintenance, and future redesigns.
The team chose passive cooling to avoid fans on the actuators, shaping visible fins to move air behind the robot’s padding. Safety clearances influenced the robot’s height and width, while offset arms and legs help reduce pinch risks and preserve movement. Camera placement and range of motion also shape the body so Atlas can see its surroundings and reach work areas.
The product head replaces the prototype’s rounder look with light rings that can support interaction without giving Atlas a literal face. Neck movement helps the cameras see the feet and reach overhead areas. Kucera says the head must combine desktop-level computing with waterproofing and the ability to withstand falls.
Thorn notes that robots fall frequently during lab development, so the head must be robust without becoming too heavy, costly, or complicated. The team is weighing repair time against durability requirements. Modular construction and staged hardware updates let behavior development proceed while subsystems continue to improve.
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A Boston Dynamics Prototype Operations team member explains how the company builds and improves Atlas, from precision machining through assembly and testing, alongside its engineers.
Boston Dynamics engineers discuss the design, simulation, and dexterity of Atlas’s new hands.
Boston Dynamics’ robotics team discusses Atlas’s path to industrial work at Hyundai Motor Group’s Robotics Metaplant Application Center, with a host visiting the facility.
The Atlas Director of Robot Behavior at Boston Dynamics talks with NEXT host John Koetsier about Atlas’s design, robot intelligence, factory integration, and why legs can suit industrial work.
Zack Jackowski, Atlas development lead at Boston Dynamics, and company researchers discuss training humanoid robots for factory work; Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind explores AI’s capabilities and risks; Palmer Luckey of Anduril describes autonomous weapons; and artists and engineers in Carrara debate robots in sculpture.
Robert Playter, CEO of Boston Dynamics, and Atlas engineers Zach Jackowski and Scott Kuindersma discuss training and deploying AI-powered humanoid robots at Hyundai’s Georgia factory and Boston Dynamics’ Massachusetts lab.
