Boston Dynamics brings its legged robots to the FIFA World Cup

Atlas demonstrates the deceptive Ghost Rabona kick. Boston Dynamics Inc.

has taught its Atlas humanoid to kick a soccer ball while its Spot robots support security operations at tournament venues. Hyundai Motor Co., which acquired Boston Dynamics in 2021, has expanded its 27-year partnership with FIFA World Cup. While other humanoid robots have participated in the RoboCup league, Hyundai is leaving the competition to humans while demonstrating how its robots can learn, move, and do actual work. Alberto Rodriguez, director of robot behavior, and Merry Frayne, senior director of product for Spot at Boston Dynamics, spoke with The Robot Report about the company‘s involvement with this year’s World Cup. How did this partnership with FIFA come about? Rodriguez: We’re always looking for artistic expression to drive the technology forward, from dancing to parkour. The World Cup was too good of an opportunity to pass on. Hyundai came to us and proposed a focused campaign based on soccer. On the technical side, we were extremely excited, because soccer has extreme behaviors, and the time was right to challenge the new generation of Atlas to do things like imitate the iconic trick shots of leading players. For the “School of Football” campaign, we developed the “Ghost Rabona” kick. We’ve done lots of athletic maneuvers — jumps and flips — but they’re not as complex as the interactions with an object [the ball] and the ground. Practicing the motions for quick footwork is more complex than a backflip. Submit your session idea for the 2026 RoboBusiness Atlas learns new tricks in a new way How did you teach Atlas these complex motions? Rodriguez: The technologies to capture motion and design behaviors today make it easier to explore a superhuman range of motion. For the most complex trick shots, we can use motion capture or mocap.