This Google robot's 'Karate Kid' move is perfectly mind-blowing

It’s a pose every kid who grew up in the '80s can show you: the "crane" from the 1984 classic The Karate Kid. Now a humanoid robot built by Google has mastered the same move: balancing with one robotic foot atop a stack of cinderblocks, while raising the other knee up to its metallic chest and lifting its arms so they look like a pair of wings. Then it jumps! No, not really. The Atlas robot — which was built by the now Google-owned Boston Dynamics (the same robotics company that brought you Big Dog and a robot that can run as fast as a cheetah) and programmed by The Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) — balances for a long while, but never pulls off the trademark kick like Ralph Macchio (who played the lead character in Karate Kid).

Even so, what Atlas does do is mind-boggling.

(See also: Andy Rubin exits Google: Where are the robots?)

In the roughly minute-and-a-half-long video, the robot not only pulls off a perfect crane, it also practices other poses, all while managing not to fall off the blocks. Watching Atlas in action, one has to wonder if a human could manage a similar feat.

Creepiness aside, the ability for a robot to walk, run and generally stay upright is no small feat

Creepiness aside, the ability for a robot to walk, run and generally stay upright is no small feat. The human body is held upright not by magic, but by constantly adjusting muscles, all controlled by the brain, which gathers information from places like the ears, which help us manage balance. Even walking for us is basically controlled falling. If you want a robot to walk and move like a human, you have to replicate much of that intelligence. Now, however, that robot intelligence (or algorithm) includes balancing on one artificial leg, which is an order of magnitude more difficult for humans and robots.
Go ahead — try balancing on one foot while standing on the ground. Not bad. Now try it on top of a stack of books. We’ll wait. Bet you have a bit more respect for Atlas now.
Like everything else Atlas can do (walking, climbing stairs, avoiding obstacles), the humanoid’s latest tricks are not simply fun technology demonstrations. Atlas is, in a sense, training for a big competition.

Ian, an Atlas robot with IHMC Robotics, successfully cuts a hole in a wall — a common action that human first responders perform. IHMC Robotics won the Cut Through Wall task and ranked second overall in the competition. December, 2013

Image: DARPA

Last year, Atlas came in second in the DARPA Grand Challenge by proving it could accomplish many of the tasks normally provided by first responders to disasters.
The robot heads back to DARPA competition this year, and some experts believe its Crane pose could lift it up and over the competition -– or at least deliver a finishing blow to the chin.
By the way, if you want to teach your own robot how to stand and pose like Ralph Macchio, you're in luck. IMHC Robotics started open-sourcing its algorithms, which may eventually include the Crane move, in September.