The centerpiece of this year's DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), the upgraded Atlas robot was unveiled to the competing teams in Waltham, Massachusetts last week during a technical shakeout.

Developed for DARPA by Boston Dynamics, the 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m), 345 lb (156.5 kg) bipedal, humanoid Atlas robot is designed for exploring ways to use robots in disaster situations – especially where navigating debris and using tools or found objects is necessary. According to DARPA, the upgrades to the Atlas increase its efficiency, dexterity, and resilience, with 75 percent of it replaced with new components and only the lower legs and feet remaining from the original design.

The new Atlas uses lighter materials than the previous version. This allowed the engineers to add an onboard 3.7 kWh lithium-ion battery pack and a new variable-pressure pump system. This is not only quieter than the old one, but DARPA says that it provides one hour of "mixed mission" operation with different power requirements for different tasks.