Watch Boston Dynamics' newest Atlas robot wake up in the creepiest way possible

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Boston Dynamics replaces its flagship humanoid robot after 10 years with a completely new machine that looks like the Pixar lamp with a mechanical humanoid body.

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Robotics company Boston Dynamics has unveiled its latest humanoid robot in creepy footage showing the machine waking up from a deep slumber.

In the new video, published April 17 on YouTube, the fully electric "Atlas" humanoid robot lies face down on the floor before unnaturally bending its legs backward beyond its hips. It then puts its strength into its fully rotatable hip joints to rise to its feet.

We can also see its other fully rotatable joints in action as Atlas spins its head 360 degrees to face the camera — "looking" into the lens with a cylindrical light that surrounds a black, glass screen, which may turn out to be a display.

"The new Atlas builds on decades of research and furthers our commitment to delivering the most capable, useful mobile robots solving the toughest challenges in industry today: with Spot, with Stretch, and now with Atlas," company representatives wrote in the video description.

Related: Forget making coffee — Boston Dynamics puts Atlas to work lifting heavy automotive struts in latest flex

Only a day before publishing its new video, Boston Dynamics published another YouTube clip that spliced together various highlights of its previous Atlas model — a much larger hydraulic bipedal humanoid robot that has been in development since 2013.

"For almost a decade, Atlas has sparked our imagination, inspired the next generations of roboticists, and leapt over technical barriers in the field," company representatives wrote in the video description. "Now it’s time for our hydraulic Atlas robot to kick back and relax."

Atlas was one of the earliest functional humanoid robots and has been featured in several promotional videos through the years, including one clip performing backflips and another where it was seen lifting heavy automotive struts.

But its status was recently eclipsed by more recent models from other robotics companies. These include Tesla's Optimus Gen 2 robot, Unitree's H1 and Figure's Figure 01 machine — which is embedded with artificial intelligence (AI).

Boston Dynamics representatives added that the new Atlas is the most "dynamic humanoid robot" — and said that the company will soon be releasing new promotional footage showcasing what it can do in the lab, in the factory and in the context of our day-to-day lives.

Keumars Afifi-Sabet
Keumars Afifi-Sabet
Channel Editor, Technology

Keumars is the technology editor at Live Science. He has written for a variety of publications including ITPro, The Week Digital, ComputerActive, The Independent, The Observer, Metro and TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a technology journalist for more than five years, having previously held the role of features editor with ITPro. He is an NCTJ-qualified journalist and has a degree in biomedical sciences from Queen Mary, University of London. He's also registered as a foundational chartered manager with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), having qualified as a Level 3 Team leader with distinction in 2023.