After looking at Boston Dynamics for phase one I wanted to look a bit more into the process they have around the prototyping and developing the robots and the software used for them.
They are constantly in a state of Research & Development with the robots they use, I am looking into the various ways they are using the Atlas model and how it can contently be improved to become more independent and develop the machine learning it uses to become more successful with its tasks and tests.
Fixing:
In this video it shows a lot of the behind the scenes of the failures of the atlas robot as well the team that have to work together to get the atlas back out in working condition, there is actually multiple teams each fix various different issues as often there will be specific failures that will be easier to fix with a small focused team than a broader skill set team.
This often ended with them running a test sequence where it would push the robot to its limits so it can catch out any problems to make sure it comes before doing the actual sequences. (shown at 4:20 of the clip above) I like the idea of this sort of suspended mid-air doing a sort of boot up sequence. kind of like how we stretch in the morning.
Failing:
In contrast to the fixing, I also find the atlas breaking down rather interesting weather that’s the ground giving away underneath the ‘push off’ of the robot and how it reacts to that or the hydraulics giving out and how the rest of the appendages react to the failure.
I like how they when the atlas breaks it’s always an isolated issue its never like the whole thing falls apart. This makes me think how interchangeable parts could be utilised and swapped to prevent any extended issues.
Where to go next:
Taking this forward, I want to look at more ways in which technology gets delipidated and ruined over time and multiple uses, this gives me a wider range of avenues to look at. As well as this I think that the idea of maintenance on robots. I think some of these themes could develop into very interesting game mechanics so I will revisit this throughout the Phase 3 stage of the project. As I think this will span off into a few different direction to develop a game with the information that I have gathered here.