---
title: "Watch Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Robot Balance Like A Real Human"
description: "A new video was just released of Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot balancing on a piece of wood. Just like a regular human, you can watch it shift, shake, and move to stay on the beam, thanks to a control algorithm by IHMC."
date: "2016-09-13"
modified: "2016-09-13"
authors:
  - name: "Jelor Gallego"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jelor-gallego"
url: "https://futurism.com/watch-boston-dynamics-atlas-robot-balance-like-a-real-human"
categories:
  - "Boston Dynamics"
  - "Robotics"
  - "Robots and Machines"
tags:
  - "balance"
  - "Humanoid Robots"
  - "robots"
---

# Watch Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Robot Balance Like A Real Human

![robots humanoid robots balance](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Watch-Boston-Dynamics-Atlas-Balance-Like-A-Real-Human.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/f311152309d5f2f15d7852692ecc69d3/204312017/-4.jpg" target="\_blank"\>Futurism/LPM\</a\>\</em\>*

[One of the primary challenges ](<https://futurism.com/scientists-made-a-new-humanoid-robot-that-walks-just-like-a-human>)with bigger robots is making them move without falling over. Big, human-sized robots either can't walk at all, or they walk like a one-legged man having a seizure. Balance, stability, grace—these are the things we have yet to see in a humanoid robot.

Now, we may finally have a contender. Boston Dynamics has been working on the Atlas robot, and new work from IHMC shows that it [can balance on a piece of wood](<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/robots/a22800/boston-dynamics-atlas-balance/?src=socialflowTW>) as well as any person can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=28&v=JgZVk8Pzhf0

In the video, we can see Atlas balancing on a thin piece of wood for thirty seconds. But its not just the balancing part that's awesome—its seeing a robot move, shift its weight, and react like an actual person.

Notably, [its original specs](<http://techgenmag.com/2014/10/atlas-robot-gets-closer-to-walking-like-a-human/>) were meant to make it humanoid. It has a height of approximately 1.8 meters (6 feet) and a weight of 150 kg (330 pounds). It's also fairly robust—it's made of aircraft-grade titanium and aluminum with blue LED lights mounted inside its chest.

Remarkably, its reaction when it finally loses to gravity even mimics how a person would when taking a tumble, twisting its torso in the opposite direction.