Boston Dynamics and Toyota Research Institute (TRI) have announced progress in robotics and artificial intelligence through their collaboration on the Atlas humanoid robot. The two organizations have demonstrated Atlas performing complex tasks by using a Large Behavior Model (LBM), as shown in a video released today.
The demonstration features Atlas completing a sequence of packing, sorting, and organizing activities that combine object manipulation with locomotion. During these tasks, researchers introduced unexpected challenges such as closing the lid of a box or sliding it across the floor. The robot was able to adjust its actions in real time. Unlike previous systems that separated walking and balancing from arm movements, this project used an LBM to control the entire robot at once.
The advancement is a result of a partnership formed in October 2024 between Boston Dynamics and TRI. This collaboration aims to accelerate development in smart robots by combining both organizations’ expertise.
Scott Kuindersma, vice president of Robotics Research at Boston Dynamics, said: “This work provides a glimpse into how we’re thinking about building general-purpose robots that will transform how we live and work. Training a single neural network to perform many long-horizon manipulation tasks will lead to better generalization, and highly capable robots like Atlas present the fewest barriers to data collection for tasks requiring whole-body precision, dexterity, and strength.”
Russ Tedrake, senior vice president of Large Behavior Models at Toyota Research Institute, added: “One of the main value propositions of humanoids is that they can achieve a huge variety of tasks directly in existing environments, but the previous approaches to programming these tasks simply could not scale to meet this challenge. Large Behavior Models address this opportunity in a fundamentally new way – skills are added quickly via demonstrations from humans, and as the LBMs get stronger, they require less and less demonstrations to achieve more and more robust behaviors.”
The research team led by Kuindersma and Tedrake is focused on exploring large models for whole-body robotic control—including advanced manipulation and dynamic behaviors—through this project.
For further technical details on this project, visit https://bostondynamics.com/blog/large-behavior-models-atlas-find-new-footing/.
Boston Dynamics specializes in developing mobile robots for industrial uses such as manufacturing facilities, power plants, construction sites, warehouses, and distribution centers. Their product lineup includes Spot (a quadruped inspection robot), Stretch (a logistics-focused box-moving robot), and Atlas (an electric humanoid platform still under development). More information can be found at www.bostondynamics.com.
Toyota Research Institute focuses on research areas including automated driving technology, energy solutions, human-centered AI development, interactive driving systems, large behavior models for robotics applications, and material science innovations. Established in 2016 under Dr. Gill Pratt’s leadership with offices in Los Altos and Cambridge, TRI works toward making daily life safer and more sustainable. Details are available at http://tri.global.
