Just 15 runners lined up at the starting line for the first Boston Marathon in 1897. David Grilk hopes to get nearly that many robots to participate in a race he’s planning for Sunday, April 19, in Boston’s Seaport.

The robots are in their early stages of development. So they mess up quite a bit. They certainly aren't doing these tasks perfectly-at least not yet. That's because the data for AI to learn a variety of physical human tasks doesn't exist.

Robots such as Boston Dynamics’ four-legged Spot can now accurately read analog thermometers and pressure gauges while roaming around factories and warehouses. Those improvements come courtesy of Google DeepMind’s newest robotic AI model that aims to enhance robotic capabilities for ‘embodied reasoning’ when interacting with physical environments.

Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot can already trot across rubble, open doors, and inspect industrial sites. Now, a research effort involving Google DeepMind is exploring whether the quadruped can learn to think through problems before it moves a single leg.

“On marathon weekend in Boston, humanoid robots will sprint a 50-meter dash on a spectator-lined course in Boston’s Seaport District, in front of thousands of people. This is the Professional Robotics League (ProRL) Combine, the first professional robotics sports event in American history.” You can register for the April 19th race HERE.

The Boston Dynamics SpotMini robot. The secretive robotics firm Boston Dynamics has spent decades designing robots that can jump, gallop or prowl like animals. (Boston Dynamics) The Boston Dynamics SpotMini robot. The secretive robotics firm Boston ...

As data centers scale and autonomous systems become more common, Micropolis Robotics’ Alexander Rugaev unpacks an operational boundary: machines can observe, but not decide. Robots are

Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics publicly demonstrated its humanoid robot Atlas for the first time Monday at the CES tech showcase, ratcheting up a competition with Tesla and other rivals to build robots that look like people and do things that people do.