Boston Dynamics unofficially presents wheeled upright robot
Boston Dynamics has been working on a wheeled upright robot. Named "Handle" because it is designed to handle objects, the robot was presented to investors by company founder Marc Raibert. Creating a robot that can move objects around a warehouse would strengthen the company, which in the past has struggled to produce a real-world commercial product. Boston Dynamics was bought by Google parent Alphabet in 2013, but in March last year it was reported that Alphabet wanted to sell the firm.
Boston Dynamics is best known for its bipedal and quadrupedal robots, but it turns out the company has also been experimenting with some radical new tech: the wheel.

The company’s new wheeled, upright robot is named Handle (“because it’s supposed to handle objects”) and looks like a cross between a Segway and the two-legged Atlas bot. Handle hasn’t been officially unveiled, but was shown off by company founder Marc Raibert in a presentation to investors. Footage of the presentation was uploaded to YouTube by venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson.

Raibert describes Handle as an “experiment in combining wheels with legs, with a very dynamic system that is balancing itself all the time and has a lot of knowledge of how to throw its weight around.” He adds that using wheels is more efficient than legs, although there’s obviously a trade-off in terms of maneuvering over uneven ground. “This is the debut presentation of what I think will be a nightmare-inducing robot,” says Raibert:

Creating a more efficient robot that can handle basic tasks like moving objects around a warehouse would certainly be of benefit for Boston Dynamics. Although the company has consistently wowed the public with its robots, it’s struggled to produce a commercial product that’s ready for the real world.