The Atlas humanoid robot attempted a backflip. Here’s what happened

By Trevor Mogg Published January 11, 2026

At the recent CES 2026 tech show in Las Vegas, Boston Dynamics showed off the latest version of its advanced Atlas humanoid robot, a machine that it’s been working on for more than a decade.

The robot strolled onto the stage with such a natural gait that it must have had many audience members wondering if the team behind the robot had somehow managed to squeeze a human inside. But it was, in fact, 100% humanoid robot. 

At what appeared to be a side event at last week’s tech show, Boston Dynamics took some time out to entertain a small group of onlookers by making the Atlas robot perform a backflip.

A video (below) of the stunt shows the small group of attendees counting down as Atlas prepares to take on the challenge. But the backflip wasn’t a 100% success …

As you can see, while Atlas manages to make a complete midair rotation and land on its feet, the landing isn’t clean and the robot stumbles briefly before righting itself. It also loses the cap for the gripper on its right hand as it returns to terra firmer with something of a clatter.

While it wasn’t a perfect landing (perhaps attributable to what looks like a slippery floor), it was still impressive how the robot managed to quickly correct itself to prevent a more calamitous touchdown. The recovery demonstrates some high level computing smarts, with the robot’s multitude of joints able to move at lightning speed to keep Atlas on its feet.

Those who follow the work of Massachusetts-based Boston Dynamics will recall that this isn’t the first time Atlas has executed a backflip. A much earlier version of the bipedal bot nailed the same maneuver eight years ago, though it did so from a higher starting point, giving it a little more time and space to complete the move. And more recently, Atlas performed the maneuver while wearing a Santa suit.

As for this latest effort, well, it looked like part fun and part demonstration of the robot’s ability to coordinate complex movements at speed. No, it doesn’t tell us a great deal about Atlas’s suitability for tasks in places like factories and warehouses, but Boston Dynamics has already released videos demonstrating how its robot could be deployed in such settings.