Karl Price, a mechanical engineer, answers your questions about designing robots, balancing innovation and reliability, and getting hands-on with Atlas. Read the interview below and watch a conversation with Karl on the evolution of the Atlas gripper.

Working at Boston Dynamics

What is your role at Boston Dynamics?
I am a mechanical engineer, specifically a robot design engineer. I design robot subsystems, often with a team of other engineers, which will consist of mechanical, electrical, controls, and behavior engineers. This is my sixth year at Boston Dynamics. I started on the Spot project for about three years, before moving over to my current role on the Atlas project.

What projects have you worked on? What has been your favorite project?
I have worked on the Spot and Atlas projects. This has included putting our Spot Arm into mass production (Spot uses the arm to open doors and do other manipulation tasks—check out those behaviors in our earlier videos), and working on the payloads and sensor packages that we mount on Spot’s back to increase its capability. More recently with Atlas, I’ve been focusing on the design of new electric actuators, arms, legs, heads, and the newest generation gripper.

What might one version of a typical day look like for you?
A typical day in the design phase of a project involves brainstorming meetings with cross-functional teams of engineers and technicians, working up concept designs with pen and paper as well as 3D computer design (CAD), and detailed design incorporating engineering calculations and detailed CAD work. During the implementation phase of a design when we build and experiment with a robot, I will work with teams of specialized technicians to build my designs, and spend time in the hardware lab investigating hardware problems and how to fix them.

Getting into robotics

What got you interested in robotics?
As a child I loved taking any old electronics apart that I could get my hands on. The best was when I could find a motor inside that I could hook up to a battery and build something that could move around on its own. This led to an interest in hobby robotics; BEAM robotics philosophy played a big role—trying to build simple but responsive systems inspired by phenomena we see in nature. Ultimately, I knew that I wanted to design robots full time someday.

What did you study in school?
I studied mechatronics engineering, which is equal parts mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering. These are three disciplines that have to work together in order to make a robot. Outside of school, I chose to focus mostly on the mechanical side of robotics, but having a broad understanding of these other fields is very helpful. I incorporate principles from these other disciplines into my work every day.

What advice would you have for someone just getting started in robotics?
My piece of advice is to follow your heart and do what you love, whether that is robotics or anything else. Spending your time studying, experimenting, or playing with the things that inspire you is the best way to develop a passion that can propel you to grow. Ways to get involved in robotics could be to find an interesting looking book (check the library!), a robot kit, join a robot club, or join a maker space and see what you can make. See what you can build out of things that people are getting rid of—that’s what got me started. When you make your first cool project or meet a friend who is working on something of their own, that will be the boost you need to start thinking about what you can make next.

Designing Atlas

How do Atlas’ grippers work?
The current grippers have evolved based on manipulation work we’ve done with both hydraulic Atlas and our new electric version. This iteration has seven degrees of freedom, tactile sensing, and cameras on the palm. This gripper design lets Atlas manipulate both large, heavy objects and small, delicate objects, as well as recognize if it has dropped an object or lost its grip.

Why don’t you just build human hands?
The human body is an amazing machine, and designers have tried to mimic it for hundreds of years. Human hands have an incredible level of dexterity, fine motor control, touch feedback, slim form-factor, and a very efficient force-to-volume ratio—these are all things we strive for in gripper design. The real challenge is how to design a robotic hand that has all these features of the same quality as the human hand while also making it robust enough to manipulate the heavy objects that Atlas is picking up, as well as stay in one piece if the robot makes a mistake, hitting the hand on a table or even falling over onto the hand. Today, three fingers including an opposable thumb gives us a lot of flexibility to manipulate different objects while minimizing points of failure, but the gripper could definitely look different in the future. 

Is Atlas right- or left-handed?
We do have a left and right version of the gripper based on the direction the fingers bend (inward 90° and backward 90°) and the direction the thumb rotates; these two grippers are a mirrored pair. Atlas doesn’t have a dominant hand like a person, though. It will use whichever hand gives it the best angle and most reliable grip based on where it’s standing and the object it’s interacting with.

Can Atlas pick up delicate objects?
Yes, it can. The challenge here is to grab hard enough to keep a delicate object from slipping out of a grasp, but gently enough to keep from damaging it. Our new tactile sensing fingertips are designed to increase Atlas’ capability to handle delicate objects. We have promising results showing that we can manipulate lots of delicate things (see the coffee cup manipulation in our companion video above). Our focus is on doing useful tasks on the automotive manufacturing line, which requires finesse, but also high force output. This could be picking a heavy cosmetic part and assembling it to a car (it must not cause scratches), and then grabbing screws or tools to screw it into place.