IN A side-street warehouse near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world's most advanced humanoid robots hangs limp from a steel gantry. Feet angled down like a ballet dancer, it is nearly 2 metres tall and as heavy as a sumo wrestler.
This is an Atlas robot, one of seven made by robotics company Boston Dynamics to take part in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, run by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The world's top specialists are competing to design a robot that can carry out emergency-response duties in disaster situations that are often too dangerous for humans, such as last year's nuclear accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power plant. In December, Atlas and a motley crew of other robots will take to an obstacle course designed by DARPA in Pensacola, Florida. The robots will face eight challenges, including traversing uneven ground, getting into and ...
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