Humanoid Robot Nails Perfect Backflip As Mobility Progress Accelerates At Scary Pace

Boston Dynamics has released new footage of its flagship humanoid robot program, “Atlas,” showcasing next-level mobility and reinforcing our greatest fears that when these bots are paired with “brains,” adoption can quickly move from factory floors to offensive defense missions.

“Now that the Atlas enterprise platform is getting to work, the research version gets one last run in the sun. Our engineers made one final push to test the limits of full-body control and mobility, with help from the RAI Institute,” Boston Dynamics, which is owned by Hyundai Motor Group, wrote in the description of a video titled “Atlas Airborne.”

The video shows Atlas pulling off an impressive cartwheel, capped by a near-perfect backflip landing, at the Robotics & AI Institute testing facility. The institute is a research organization focused on solving fundamental challenges in robotics and AI. The video also highlights several other mobility accomplishments.

What’s clear to us is that these humanoid robots are set to march en masse onto assembly lines, warehouses, and other factory floors this year.

As we noted earlier, “robot brains” are already here, accelerating the shift from promotional stunts to real-world use cases and, ultimately, mass commercial adoption across manufacturing settings.

We think there is a rising probability here, frankly high enough that someone should start a Polymarket bet, that humanoid robots for dual use could show up at testing grounds in Ukraine as soon as this year.

We have warned about the dual-use risk even as leading companies, including Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics, Unitree, and Figure AI, publicly state they will not weaponize their bots.

To our knowledge, Foundation is the only U.S. humanoid robotics developer with an offensive contract with the Department of Defense.

Read the latest on where the humanoid robotics space is headed:

• Humanoid Robots Get “Brains” As Dual-Use Fears Mount

• AI’s Next Frontier Is Physical As Humanoid Robots Begin March On Assembly Lines And Beyond

• Watch: Russian Soldiers Surrender To Gun-Wielding Robot; Humanoid Warfare Nears

• AI ‘Kill Chains’ And Rise Of Skynet-Like Weapons Offer Glimpse Of 2030s Battlefield

These bots have gone from clunky machines that could barely walk in a straight line to running and doing flips in just several years. Our reporting should give readers a framework for the 2030s that makes dual-use humanoid robots unavoidable.