Boston Dynamics/YouTube
Boston Dynamics' robot dog, SpotMini.
- Boston Dynamics released a video of its SpotMini robot dancing to "Uptown Funk."
- SpotMini has previously wowed the internet with its ability to open doors.
- While the dance is entertaining, Boston Dynamics kept quiet - as it often does - about how the robot managed to learn its moves.
Boston Dynamics continues to crank out viral-worthy videos of its robots busting strange and unexpected moves.
The robotics company formerly owned by Google released on Tuesday a new video of its dog-like SpotMini robot dancing to a cover of Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk." It even pulls off the robot-dog equivalent to a moonwalk.
Previously SpotMini has gone viral for opening doors for its robot comrades.
You can watch Spotmini throwing some shapes here:
Boston Dynamics released no information to accompany the video, so it's entirely possible that Spotmini has been pre-programmed to dance.
After a video was released last week of the company's Atlas robot "doing parkour," tech journalist Hal Hodson said Boston Dynamics is quite opaque on the subject of just how autonomous its robots are.
Robots who can sense a beat and dance accordingly do exist: ETH Zurich's ANYmal robot, for example, has been filmed grooving out to a U2 cover.
.@BostonDynamics never talks about it, but I strongly suspect that Atlas can only do these things in environments that are precisely arranged and/or mapped. The boxes have to be in exactly the right place, exactly the right shape and height, or this manoeuvre won't work
- hal (@halhod) October 14, 2018