[Interview] "Humanoid Robots Will Accelerate Labor Automation... Atlas to Be Deployed at Hyundai Motor in the US by Year-End"

[Interview] Scott Kuindersma, Vice President of Boston Dynamics
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"Atlas will begin with highly labor-intensive and difficult-to-automate tasks, such as sequencing operations that arrange parts in order on automotive production lines. The first 'Proof of Concept' will take place at Hyundai Motor’s Metaplant by the end of this year."

Scott Kuindersma, Vice President of Robot Research at Boston Dynamics. Provided by Boston Dynamics

Scott Kuindersma, Vice President of Robot Research at Boston Dynamics, recently outlined a concrete roadmap for robot deployment in a written interview with Asia Economy.

Boston Dynamics is the developer of the bipedal humanoid robot Atlas and serves as the U.S. robotics subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group. Kuindersma, formerly a professor of engineering and computer science at Harvard University, joined Boston Dynamics in 2018. He leads a core team that conducts hybrid research on reinforcement learning and foundational robot models to make robots more intelligent.

Kuindersma is currently busy preparing for the first Proof of Concept (PoC) at the Metaplant America factory at the end of this year. He stated, "I anticipate a gradual transformation in industrial labor, where humanoid robots will complement physically demanding and repetitive tasks that humans must perform today," adding, "Humanoid robots like Atlas will maximize the range of work that can be automated."

In a recently released video by Boston Dynamics, Atlas drew significant attention by acting as a real person would in a factory. Atlas alternated between its two arms to sort parts, and used its whole body?walking, sitting and standing, rotating?to recognize the position and type of parts before inserting them into storage compartments. This suggests that the moment when robots replace factory workers is not far off.

A humanoid robot Atlas is inserting a part into a storage compartment. Photo by Boston Dynamics YouTube capture

In particular, automation through robot deployment has emerged as an alternative in many industries facing severe labor shortages, including automotive manufacturing. Kuindersma predicted that, as efforts to retrain people for less repetitive and more attractive roles continue, humanoid robots will fill the resulting gaps.

He said, "Repetitive tasks in part sequencing and general assembly?such as lifting heavy parts, squatting, and twisting?can be ergonomically challenging. There are many similar cases in non-manufacturing sectors such as logistics," he noted. He emphasized, "A humanoid can become a single robot platform that can be easily repurposed to perform new tasks. This will help bridge existing automation gaps and create new opportunities to expand industrial production capacity in the future."

All of Atlas’s movements are programmed based on artificial intelligence (AI). Kuindersma explained, "As the robot software stack evolves rapidly, a significant portion of core perception and control functions are shifting to data and machine learning-derived models. Atlas also generates behaviors using various approaches, including learning large-scale policies through simulation and leveraging data collected from hardware via teleoperation and autonomous operation."

He added, "With Atlas, we can collect data that covers the entire spectrum of humanoid manipulation, not just limited motions or simple handling of light objects. Our strategy to lead in humanoid and full-body control has helped facilitate the shift to AI-centric workflows."

Kuindersma expressed confidence that, like the already commercialized quadruped robot Spot and logistics automation robot Stretch, Atlas will also generate attractive returns on investment. He said, "Spot, deployed at a customer site in Belgium, performs 1,800 individual inspections each week across 10 packaging lines that produce over 50,000 beer containers per hour. During the first six months, Spot detected about 150 anomalies and reduced the average repair time from several months to 13 days."

However, he predicted it will still take several more years before a fully general-purpose humanoid robot emerges. Kuindersma stated, "Despite optimism about humanoid robots, they still fall short of humans in terms of agility, reliability, and common sense. While advances in AI have rapidly expanded the tasks robots can perform, widespread adoption will require efforts to make new technologies easy to program, ensure reliability, and implement them safely."

In this regard, Boston Dynamics has an advantage as it can produce robots continuously. He said, "Before deploying humanoids, we can build industrial environment infrastructure and acquire operational knowledge. For example, by adopting Spot and Orbit (a robot management platform), customers can prepare IT infrastructure, labor-management councils, connectivity, processes, and workflows, thereby laying the foundation for future humanoid adoption."