The Challenges of a Robotic Leg

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The humanoid form is attractive in many ways, but it's also a challenge in many ways. You have this big upper body that has a lot of mass and inertia. And throwing that inertia around increases the complexity of maintaining balance. As soon as you pick up something heavy in your arms, you've made that problem even harder.

Robert Playter is CEO of Boston Dynamics, a legendary robotics company that over 30 years has created some of the most elegant, dextrous, and simply amazing robots ever built, including the humanoid robot Atlas and the robot dog Spot. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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Boston Dynamics Website: https://bostondynamics.com

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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(07:18) – Early days of Boston Dynamics
(15:39) – Simplifying robots
(19:37) – Art and science of robotics
(24:20) – Atlas humanoid robot
(41:14) – DARPA Robotics Challenge
(55:34) – BigDog robot
(1:09:23) – Spot robot
(1:30:48) – Stretch robot
(1:33:36) – Handle robot
(1:39:10) – Robots in our homes
(1:47:57) – Tesla Optimus robot
(1:56:39) – ChatGPT
(1:59:43) – Boston Dynamics AI Institute
(2:01:14) – Fear of robots
(2:11:36) – Running a company
(2:17:13) – Consciousness
(2:24:46) – Advice for young people
(2:26:42) – Future of robots