Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot 'Atlas', a robot subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group, has impressed the world with its potential for industrial field deployment, leveraging the 2026 North American World Cup as a platform.
Boston Dynamics released behind-the-scenes footage of the World Cup performance through social media on the 16th, emphasizing that this tournament became a decisive opportunity to demonstrate Atlas's practical applicability.
Atlas appeared on the halftime stage of the World Cup Round of 16 match on the 5th, vividly recreating the goal celebration ceremony of soccer players and delivering the ball directly to the referee, capturing the attention of fans worldwide.
However, behind the spectacular stage lay fierce technical challenges. Seth Davis, Senior Manager at Boston Dynamics, revealed that "various factors had to be considered, including the robot's own performance, communication environment, ground conditions, and interactions with surrounding people."
In a stadium packed with tens of thousands of spectators, existing WiFi-based communication was essentially ineffective. To overcome this, a dedicated communication channel was separately established. To respond to strong sunlight and high-temperature outdoor environments, various systems and control functions were comprehensively improved. To prevent the feet from catching or slipping on grass, the interaction between the feet and grass surface was precisely modeled, and repeated training was conducted by borrowing a local park soccer field.
Technically, the natural movements were implemented by organically combining 'retargeting' that reconfigures human movement to suit the robot's structure, 'reinforcement learning' based on thousands of parallel simulations, and 'whole-body control technology' in which all body joints react as a single system.
Senior Manager Davis said, "The robot's movements must intuitively show what the robot can do for people and what role it will play in the future." Attention is focused on Atlas's next steps, verified on the World Cup stage watched by billions of people.
