Boston Dynamics tests Atlas on wheels as an actuator testbed

Boston Dynamics said it replaced Atlas's feet with off-the-shelf scooter wheels on the existing ankle actuators, using one custom adapter and no other new hardware, to see whether a learned whole-body controller still works when the motors run at high torque and high speed under load. The company said a 360-degree jump, taken from a human motion-capture trajectory, worked on the first hardware try, and that the wheeled robot is a research testbed rather than a product. It said the findings are already being adapted to the standard Atlas configuration, and that the next step is studying how the controller responds when actuators fail. Heise reported the demonstration on November 10, 2026; the company post itself does not display a publication date.