Google has acquired Boston Dynamics, an engineering company that specializes in building dynamic robots and software for human simulation. Boston has designed mobile research robots for the Pentagon and it is currently supplying Darpa with several copies of a humanoid robot named Atlas as part of the Darpa Robotics Challenge, a two-year contest with a $2 million prize. Darpa says such robots “hold great promise for amplifying human effectiveness in defence operations”.

Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992 as a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company is perhaps better known for its scary BigDog, a quadruped robot for travel on rough-terrain. A video of BigDog was posted on YouTube in 2008 and has been viewed more than 15 million times since

Boston Dynamics builds advanced robots with remarkable behavior: mobility, agility, dexterity and speed. We use sensor-based controls and computation to unlock the capabilities of complex mechanisms.

Organizations worldwide, from DARPA, the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps to Sony Corporation turn to Boston Dynamics for advice and for help creating the most advanced robots on Earth. (Boston Dynamics)

Boston is the eighth robotics company that Google has acquired in the last half-year. With this acquisition Google is getting deeper into its robotic efforts led by Andy Rubin, the former leader  of Google’s Android division who has said in a tweet that the “future is looking awesome.”

Even more interestingly, Google is getting deeper into its relationship with the US Department of Defense efforts, following in the footsteps of every great innovative company in USA. Mr. Krugman is quite insightful: Even if we are not under a martian attack yet, at least someone is getting ready to fight them.

____________________

Featured Image: Atlas, Boston Dynamics