Humanoid Robot Debuts

Reality is finally catching up to Hollywood: a Pentagon-financed humanoid robot named Atlas made its debut Thursday in Boston, where it was displayed publicly for the first time. Atlas is hydraulically powered, has stereo and laser vision systems, and dextrous hands. Made of aluminum and titanium and weighing 330 pounds, the robot will be able to learn until it has the approximate human functioning of a 2-year-old child. The robotics firm working on it says it could replace human rescuers in various hazardous disaster zones like the wildfire in Arizona that killed 19 firefighters. “A new species, Robo sapiens, are emerging,” one robots industry leader said.