Ask a Roboticist: Meet Taylor, Engineer on Boston Dynamics Atlas Compute and Perception Team

In an interview, Boston Dynamics mechanical engineer Taylor Frey-Baker discusses the design of the electric Atlas's head and how she entered the field. She is responsible for the compute core inside the head, which houses four perception modules with stereo vision; the head's modular design allows the entire unit to be swapped out and the compute core upgraded like a game cartridge. The hydraulic Atlas did not need a head because it performed movement demonstrations, whereas the electric Atlas relies on head cameras for a wider field of view and uses lights and sound to signal its status to people nearby.