The new Boston Dynamics video features robots doing backflips and people are terrified

For several years now the world has been in awe and a slight bit of worry about the robotics firm Boston Dynamics whose viral videos show robots displaying some seemingly mind-boggling feats.

But, from robot dogs to dancing robots, these advances were apparently just the beginning. A pair of videos released by Boston Dynamics on Tuesday show two of their Atlas units demonstrating some very impressive gymnastics and parkour skills including backflips.

The 4.9ft robots were first unveiled to the public in 2013 and are essentially a research project for the company and the parkour course allows them to explore the capabilities and experiment with new behaviours in the Atlas units.

Boston Dynamics adds: “Through jumps, balance beams, and vaults, we push Atlas to its limits to discover the next generation of mobility, perception, and athletic intelligence.”

While this is certainly impressive the internet couldn’t help but be slightly unnerved by what they were seeing, which looked to be like something from a sci-fi movie.

Some couldn’t help but compare the clips to The Terminator movies.

According to a blog post, this particular routine took months to organise and we also shouldn’t be too concerned. Many of the moves seen in the video still come with a high rate of failure and one step featured in the video is not 100 per cent perfect.

However, if that doesn’t reassure that a robot apocalypse isn’t going to happen then perhaps you should watch this behind-the-scenes video where the units actually fall over.