A humanoid robot became an unlikely halftime attraction at the FIFA World Cup on Sunday, as Boston Dynamics' Atlas walked onto the field at New York New Jersey Stadium to hand the match ball to the referee during the Brazil-Norway round of 16 fixture.
Beyond its delivery duties, the machine broke into a short routine of celebratory moves, among them a nod to Norwegian forward Erling Haaland's signature meditative goal pose. The appearance builds on Atlas's track record of public demonstrations, which have previously included dance routines and parkour sequences.
Alberto Rodriguez, Boston Dynamics' director of robot behavior, said the company has long treated human athleticism as a benchmark for robotic development, using it to gauge how far the technology can be pushed.
Getting Atlas ready for a packed football stadium, however, required engineering workarounds. With tens of thousands of spectators' phones flooding the airwaves, engineers couldn't rely on standard Wi-Fi to control the robot and instead fitted it with a dedicated radio unit on its back.
The turf presented its own hurdle: Rodriguez noted that the team had to retrain Atlas's walking, running and jumping algorithms to handle the unpredictability of grass, making its movement sturdier than on the controlled surfaces it's typically tested on.
The robot's field appearance was arranged by Hyundai Motor, one of the tournament's sponsors and a backer of Boston Dynamics. The carmaker has signaled bigger ambitions for the technology, announcing plans earlier this year to put Atlas units to work at its Georgia manufacturing plant from 2028 onward, targeting tasks considered repetitive or hazardous for human workers.
