Atlas Robot’s New Hand May Outperform Humanlike Designs

Today, Boston Dynamics is announcing a redesigned hand for its Atlas robot. The previous generation could do some crazy superhuman things with its three fingers, but it was never intended for mass production in the tens or hundreds of thousands. Switching from research hardware to a scalable product makes previously ignorable questions suddenly paramount: How…

Video Friday: Your Robot Surgeon Will See You Now

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.Summer School on Multi-Robot Systems: 29 July–4 August 2026, PRAGUEActuate 2026: 18–19 August 2026, SAN FRANCISCOIROS…

Large Behavior Models Are Helping Atlas Get to Work

Boston Dynamics can be forgiven, I think, for the relative lack of acrobatic prowess displayed by the new version of Atlas in (most of) its latest videos. In fact, if you look at this Atlas video from late last year and compare it to Atlas’s most recent video, it’s doing what looks to be more…

Hyundai’s Metaplant Seeks Hard-Working Robots

Less than three years ago, these were bare fields in humble Ellabell, Georgia. Today, the vast Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant is exactly what people imagine when they talk about the future of EV and automobile manufacturing in America.I’ve driven the 2026 Hyundai Ioniq9 here from nearby Savannah, a striking three-row electric SUV with everything it…