Boston Dynamics is remarkably adept at making scary robots. Handle is the company’s latest, sporting two wheelies for feet, and a towering two metre-tall LeBron James body for presence. But it’s real uniqueness is its simplicity.
“Handle uses many of the same dynamics, balance and mobile manipulation principles found in the quadruped and biped robots we build, but with only about 10 actuated joints, it is significantly less complex,” the company writes referencing its previous Atlas and BigDog bots.
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“Wheels are efficient on flat surfaces while legs can go almost anywhere: by combining wheels and legs Handle can have the best of both worlds.”
And they’re not kidding.
Boston Dynamics’ Handle is what Tony Hawk’s Futurama head really really wants
In the clip, Handle owns an ice-covered slope like a pro, jumps a table backwards, and even does a cute little heel flip on the video’s final frame. Adorbs.
The internet’s loving Handle too.
“GIVE HIM A SKATEBOARD, HE IS READY,” writes one YouTube commenter, who is secretly Tony Hawk.
“It looks like its permanently winding up the biggest pelvic thrust of all time,” another quips.
People are also not looking forward to the robot apocalypse.
“The next stage is to connect a human brain to one of these things,” writes a likely Fallout 4 player.
“I bet you that parking lot is gonna have a museum built around it in 50 years of so that is, if robots like museums,” notes another.
If you’d like to take a glimpse of Handle’s elegance and chained anger, have a look at the clip below.
