Boston Dynamics says I, Google

Internet giant Google has acquired Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) robotics spin-out Boston Dynamics for an unspecified sum.

The deal will see Google add Dynamics’ range of headline-making animal inspired robots to its growing portfolio in the robotics sector. The creations, such as the Cheetah, which holds the world record for the fasted legged robot at 29 miles per hour, Atlas, a bipedal robot capable of traversing rough terrain, and WildCat, a galloping nimble robot which attracted over 15 million views in its demonstration video on YouTube, have inspired both awe and anxiety from the world’s press and general public.

Much of this trepidation stems from Dynamics’ main source of funding since founding in 1992, the US’ Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and concern that the robots could be weaponised and used on future battlefields. To this end, Google have said that they will honour Dynamics’ commitments to DARPA, but have ruled out the possibility of becoming a military contractor beyond the DARPA requirements. However, the intended future of Dynamics’ robots remains in question.

Dynamics is the eighth robotics firm the tech giant has acquired in the past six months, and sits alongside technology developed internally such as Google’s self-driving car. However, to date, Stanford spin-out Google has not indicated what it intends to do with its growing portfolio of robotics. Andy Rubin, the inventor of the Android mobile platform, is overseeing the robotics arm of Google, and has described his efforts as a “moonshot” without further elaboration of ultimate aims. However, he has indicated that he does not expect product development to be lengthy, suggesting that Google may provide commercial applications for the robotics in the next few years.

The news comes shortly after consumer website Amazon’s chief executive Jeff Bezos revealed that the retailer is developing unmanned aerial vehicles to deliver parcels with plans to deploy the tech within five years.

Larry Page, co-founder of Google, said: “I am excited about Andy Rubin’s next project.  His last big bet, Android, started off as a crazy idea that ended up putting a supercomputer in hundreds of millions of pockets.  It is still very early days for this, but I can’t wait to see the progress.”