Boston Dynamics is showcasing its remarkable Atlas humanoid robot at CES 2026 in Las Vegas this week, and footage of the autonomous machine at an unveiling event may cause your jaw to head south.
The Massachussetts-based company has been working on Atlas for years, gradually improving its agility and dexterity. And with AI technology making impressive advances in recent years, the robot’s decision-making skills have also become more sophisticated.
The latest iteration, shown in the video at the top of this page, sees Atlas walking onto stage in a very natural, human-like way.
“We partnered with our sister organization, the Robotics and AI Institute, to push the limits on natural walking just for this performance, and I think we’ve done something really special,” said Zachary Jackowski, Boston Dynamics vice president and general manager of Atlas, who appeared on stage alongside Atlas.
While its ability to walk naturally is impressive, the robot needs to do a lot more if it’s ever to become a key part of the workplace in locations like warehouses and factories. And sure enough, during the demonstration, Atlas starts to move its body and three-fingered grippers in a myriad of ways, and with astonishing fluidity, suggesting that the robot could soon be ready for prime time.
“Atlas has joints that can move 360 degrees,” Jackowski said. “This lets Atlas move even more efficiently than humans, particularly in manufacturing environments where every second counts.”
Boston Dynamics also announced that in the coming years, Atlas will help assemble cars at a U.S. facility operated by Hyundai, the tech company’s main backer.
It’s also partnered with Google’s DeepMind AI research lab to help further improve the robot’s ability to process information and make decisions.
This week’s stage appearance was a far cry from the one back in 2017 when a much more basic version of Atlas strolled around on stage before tripping over and disappearing from view. It caused a lot of laughter at the time. But no one’s laughing now.
