Boston Dynamics unveiled a production-ready version of its humanoid robot Atlas at the Computer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas, marking the company’s official entry into the rapidly expanding humanoid robotics market.
Alongside the launch, the company announced a partnership with Google DeepMind to bring more advanced cognitive capabilities to its humanoids as well as a collaboration with Hyundai Mobis to build a component supply chain for Atlas.
The event marked the first public showing of Boston Dynamics’ finished Atlas product.
The fully electric robot was revealed during Hyundai’s global CES media day presentation, which also featured a dance performance by a troupe of the company’s quadruped Spot robots.
In the demonstration, Atlas walked around the stage and waved at the crowd.
Designed as an enterprise grade humanoid robot that can perform industrial tasks, Atlas is designed to be fast learning and adaptive to changing environments, capable of working autonomously with minimal human intervention.
Robert Playter, Boston Dynamics CEO, said in a press release that the robot will “revolutionize” industries, and shift the needle on widescale robotic deployment.
“This is the best robot we have ever built,” he said. “It marks the first step toward a long-term goal we have dreamed about since we were children — useful robots that can walk into our homes and help make our lives safer, more productive, and more fulfilling.”
Production of Atlas is set to begin immediately, with initial customers including Google DeepMind and Hyundai’s Robotics Metaplant Application Center.
Hyundai Motor Group, Boston Dynamics’ majority shareholder, is also preparing to deploy tens of thousands of Boston Dynamics robots into its own manufacturing facilities.
Additional customers are expected to be announced in early 2027.
Alongside the launch is the newly announced partnership with Google DeepMind, the collaboration aims to bring AI capabilities to Boston Dynamics’ humanoids.
Specifically, the partners will integrate Gemini Robotics AI foundation models into Atlas in a bid to bolster its capacity to perceive, reason and interact with its surroundings.
“We are building the world’s most capable humanoid, and we knew we needed a partner that could help us establish new kinds of visual-language-action models for these complex robots,” Alberto Rodriguez, director of robot behavior for Atlas at Boston Dynamics, said in the release. “Nobody in the world is better suited than DeepMind to build reliable, scalable models that can be deployed safely and efficiently across a wide variety of tasks and industries.”
Finally, Boston Dynamics announced Hyundai Mobis will supply the actuators for Atlas, and the two organizations will work together to build a “highly reliable” component supply chain to support development and production of actuators.
The announcement comes on the heels of Hyundai’s $26 billion investment in its U.S. operations, which includes plans to build a new robotics factory capable of producing up to 30,000 robots per year.
