Boston Dynamics tests Atlas humanoid robot with wheeled feet

Boston Dynamics has released footage of its Atlas humanoid robot performing advanced maneuvers using an experimental wheeled configuration. Instead of traditional feet, the robot was equipped with standard electric scooter wheels attached via custom adapters to its existing ankle actuators.

The project serves as a research testbed rather than a new commercial product. By using wheels, engineers can push the robot’s motors to their physical limits, requiring high torque and sustained rotational speeds during rapid acceleration, turns, and stops. This allows the team to verify the performance limits of the actuators and the precision of the AI control systems.

The experiment utilized reinforcement learning to develop whole-body control. Through a process known as sim-to-real, the robot learned complex movements in a virtual environment, such as 360-degree jumps and lateral sliding, which were then successfully transferred to the physical hardware. The data and control improvements gained from this wheeled experiment will be applied to the standard bipedal Atlas model to enhance stability and reliability in real-world environments.