Boston Dynamics puts wheels on Atlas to test whole-body control

Boston Dynamics has released a video of its Atlas humanoid moving on wheels fitted in place of its feet, in experiments pairing classical model-based motor control with a whole-body reinforcement learning policy. The company said a wheeled Atlas “isn’t a product. It’s a research testbed.”

Andy Wu, a controls engineer for Atlas, said the conversion needed one new part: a custom adapter that mounts an off-the-shelf scooter rim on the robot's existing ankle actuator. In software, each wheel was modelled as an ankle that can spin continuously. Wu trained the behaviours in simulation, and the robot carried them out in the real world.

In the video, Atlas switches between fast rolling on flat ground and legged motion over obstacles, and performs pirouettes and other aggressive manoeuvres to push its actuators to their limits. Wu said he next wants to study how the control policy responds when actuators fail.

Boston Dynamics is preparing to expand Atlas testing at Hyundai sites, The Robot Report said.