Robotics company Boston Dynamics has been creating a buzz for the past three days with a video of three robots doing the twist to one of Dirty Dancing's cult songs.

By Ludmilla Intravaia

In this article :

• Funny falling robots videos are ancient history

• From now on, robots are kings of the dance floor

• Who are Atlas, Spot and Handle, the dancing robots of Boston Dynamics?

• Robots in fashion tech

• The dancing robots video creates the buzz on the web

We took great pleasure in watching these videos of robots falling while trying to close a valve, breaking down doors instead of opening them or knocking out a baby while trying to give him a milk bottle.

Among these, the compilations of semi-autonomous ground robot falling, on the occasion of the DARPA Robotics Challenge, a competition organized from 2012 to 2015 by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the agency of the Department of defense of the United States responsible for research and development of new technologies for military use, still make people cry with laughter on their computer.

But things have changed a lot since the DRC finals in June 2015. From now on, robots are capable of showing great agility. At least those from Boston Dynamics who really move like seasoned dancers. Thus, the American robotics company posted online, on December 29, to celebrate the transition to the new year, the video of its Atlas, Spot and Handle robots wiggling to the rhythm of Do You Love Me from the Motown Records group The Contours.

The robots are amazingly mastering the mashed potato and twist dance movements, to which the 1962 song refers, with a hint of John Travolta's moves in Saturday Night Fever and of Karate Kid's crane position in their choregraphy ( see above), as you can see in the video below.

The initial version of the humanoid robot Atlas was precisely developed as part of the DARPA Robotics Challenge. This biped, designed for search and rescue tasks, has high mobility to be able to move over rough terrain, but it can also crawl on all fours, supporting itself on its hands. These, moreover sensitive, allow Atlas to handle tools intended for humans. Watch the robot do its gymnastics below.

Spot is a canine-inspired quadruped weighing 25 kilograms, making it the lightest robot of those marketed by Boston Dynamics. It can climb stairs, crouch down to get under furniture, get up when it falls. Its mechanical arm gives it the ability to manipulate objects, for example a door handle to open it. In 2019, the Massachusetts Police called on its services, as a robot cop and a member of their bomb squad. A year later, Spot was seen in Japan with robot Pepper and a baseball team cheerleaders for a collaborative choreography immortalized below.

The third robot named Handle, is a mobile handling unit, with two flexible legs on wheels, that can be used in logistics, in warehouses, for example.

Note that if the robots seem fond of dance, they also like fashion, they who do not shy away from a little detour by the catwalks at Philipp Plein (more info here), at Chanel (more info here) or at Dior (more info here), as well as in advertising campaigns at Prada, for example (more info there).

The ballet of our three friends, almost as hot as that of the film Dirty Dancing in 1987 which included a dance scene to the famous title Do You Love Me, is already creating a buzz on YouTube. A nice surprise for this new year which has collected more than 16 million views, at the time we close the writing of this article.

* Boston Dynamics website is here.

* Continue reading with these following Boudoir Numérique articles :

- Milan FW SS21 - Articulated arms of a raclette robot at Philipp Plein

- Yolandi Visser, pleasure android in Future Baby from Die Antwoord

- NYFW SS20 : Rag & Bone’s robotic experience

- The most techy sets of Chanel fashion shows

- Prada under tech influences

- Do Lovot Dream of Electric Fashion?

- Fembots and Sci-Fi at Dior : decoding 101

- 1/3 - "Fashion can no longer look down on geeks and tech"

- Fashion queen Gigi Goode impersonates Sophia, the top model robot