Boston Dynamics and Toyota will create a robot that can learn

Boston Dynamics and Toyota have announced a partnership to create a universal humanoid robot with artificial intelligence (AI) elements and the ability to learn. Following the example of large linguistic models, the Toyota Research Institute will build its own "large behavioral model" based on the Atlas anthropomorphic robotic platform. If the project is successful, Toyota will start rolling out an adapted model for other companies' robots.

The Toyota Research Institute has succeeded in teaching robotic arms various skills. The method is based on telepresence, when a human operator personally controls the manipulators, observing the process as if through the eyes of a robot. The system then repeats the manipulations on its own with multiple interpretations, both correct and incorrect, and builds its future behavior on this set of data. This method allows artificial intelligence platforms to learn on their own even what humans have not shown them, saving time on training.

Boston Dynamics' Atlas humanoid robot has created a sensation in the robotics industry and can be considered the benchmark for modern humanoid robotics. It has not entered mass production, but this does not deny the development of many innovative solutions on it, which, one way or another, have found their application or will find their application in robots of other companies.

Earlier this year, Boston Dynamics discontinued development of the hydraulically powered Atlas robot and introduced an all-electric version. The electric Atlas received more degrees of freedom for all limbs, which, in addition to significantly expanding functionality, made the platform much more difficult to control.

Humanity has accumulated a huge amount of data in the form of text, which has provided a great growth for large language models in a few years. There is no similar volume of data on physical behavior. Toyota Research Institute, among other things, creates such foundations and is considered one of the leaders in this process. A collaboration between Boston Dynamics and the Toyota Research Institute promises to create a universal humanoid robot capable of performing physical actions and tasks.