‘Black Mirror’ in Real Life: These Robots Have Incredible Skills

Boston Dynamics’ “Dog” Spot has some new tricks, while Atlas the humanoid goes for a jog and does some parkour.

The Boston Dynamics dogs learn to behave in a pack like sled dogs.

Photo: Boston Dynamics 

Robots are fascinating to watch. But they can also be a little scary, especially if you’ve watched the web series Black Mirror, where you see some of them in pretty dark roles. The thing is, while Black Mirror is a work of fiction, the technology it portrayed appears to be coming to life.

Watch some of these Boston Dynamics robots in action. While we showed you dogs opening doors and robots doing jumps, these have learned some new tricks.

The “dogs” in the video below are learning to perform in a pack like sled dogs. And check out what they are hauling!

If you thought these robot dogs are getting smarter, check out what ‘Atlas’ the humanoid athletic robot has been up to. After learning to jump and do back flips, landing on its feet, Atlas is now acing parkour!

Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992 and has been developing technology for the military primarily in the US. It does not reveal its plans or products, which are all hush-hush. But it does keep posting rather intriguing, and sometimes scary, videos of the robots it has developed.

Here’s one that could replace menial stacking tasks at large ecommerce warehouses. This robot can carry boxes up to 15 Kg in weight.

Of course, there’s also some fun and games as well. Check out this robot dog named Spot grooving to Uptown Funk.

Founded in 1992, Boston Dynamics rarely reveals its plans except by posting YouTube videos that have impressed and terrified people. Most of Boston Dynamics' robotics research had been applied in the military until Google bought the Waltham, Massachusetts, company in 2013. Japanese tech giant SoftBank bought Boston Dynamics from Google last year.