Boston Dynamics is an American
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
and
robotics
Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrat ...
design company founded in 1992 as a
spin-off
Spin-off may refer to:
*Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work
*Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity
* Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...
from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
. Headquartered in
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, th ...
, Boston Dynamics has been owned by the
Hyundai Motor Group
The Hyundai Motor Group (HMG; ; ; stylized as HYUΠDAI) is a South Korean '' chaebol'' (loosely similar to a multinational conglomerate but without a central holding company or ownership structure) headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.
The HM ...
since December 2020, but having only completed the acquisition in June 2021.
Boston Dynamics is best known for the development of a series of dynamic highly-mobile robots, including
BigDog
BigDog is a dynamically stable quadruped military robot that was created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station. It was funded by DARPA, but the proj ...
, Spot,
Atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth.
Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...
, and Handle. Since 2019, Spot has been made commercially available, making it the first commercially available robot from Boston Dynamics, while the company has stated its intent to commercialize other robots as well, including Handle.
History
The company was founded by
Marc Raibert
Marc Raibert (born December 22, 1949) is the founder, former CEO, and now Chairman of Boston Dynamics, a robotics company known for creating BigDog, Atlas, Spot, and Handle. Before starting Boston Dynamics, Raibert was professor of Electrical Engi ...
, whom which spun the company off from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
in 1992. The company was an outgrowth of the Leg Laboratory, Raibert's research lab at MIT and
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...
. Th
Leg Laboratoryhelped establish the scientific basis for highly dynamic robots. These robots were inspired by the remarkable ability of animals to move with agility, dexterity, perception and intelligence, and the work there set the stage for the robots developed at Boston Dynamics. Nancy Cornelius was a co-founder of Boston Dynamics, having joined the company as its first employee. During her time there she served as an officer of the company, did engineering on many contracts, was CFO for 10 years, and later was VP in charge of engineering on several contracts. She retired after 21 years of service in 2013, when the company was acquired by Google. Robert Playter was also a co-founder of the company, joining a few months later, as soon as he completed his PhD thesis at MIT working with Raibert in the Leg Laboratory. Playter was COO at the company for many years and has been CEO since 2019.
Early in the company's history, it worked with the American Systems Corporation under a contract from the
Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division
The Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD) is an Echelon IV command of the United States Navy, reporting to the Commander, Naval Air Warfare Center - Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. NAWCTSD is lo ...
(NAWCTSD) to replace naval training videos for aircraft launch operations with interactive
3D computer simulations featuring characters made with DI-Guy, software for realistic human simulation. Eventually the company started making physical robots—for example,
BigDog
BigDog is a dynamically stable quadruped military robot that was created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station. It was funded by DARPA, but the proj ...
was a quadruped
robot
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...
designed for the U.S. military with funding from
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the Adv ...
(DARPA).
On December 13, 2013, the company was acquired by
Google X
X Development LLC (formerly Google X) is an American semi-secret research and development facility and organization founded by Google in January 2010, which now operates as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. X has its headquarters about a mile and a ...
(later
X, a subsidiary of
Alphabet Inc.
Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It was created through a restructuring of Google on October 2, 2015, and became the parent company of Google and sev ...
) for an unknown price, where it was managed by
Andy Rubin
Andrew E. Rubin is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. Rubin founded Android Inc. in 2003, which was acquired by Google in 2005; Rubin served as a Google vice president for 9 years and led Google's efforts in ...
until his departure from Google in 2014. Immediately before the acquisition, Boston Dynamics transferred their DI-Guy software product line to
VT MÄK
MAK Technologies, formerly doing business as VT MAK, Inc. is a software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that provides commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) modeling and simulation software. The company develops and sells software for distribu ...
, a simulation software vendor based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
On June 8, 2017, Alphabet Inc. announced the sale of the company to Japan's
SoftBank Group
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...
for an undisclosed sum. On April 2, 2019, Boston Dynamics acquired the Silicon Valley startup Kinema Systems.
In December 2020,
Hyundai Motor Group
The Hyundai Motor Group (HMG; ; ; stylized as HYUΠDAI) is a South Korean '' chaebol'' (loosely similar to a multinational conglomerate but without a central holding company or ownership structure) headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.
The HM ...
acquired an 80% stake in the company from SoftBank for approximately $880 million dollars. SoftBank Group retains about 20% through an affiliate. In June 2021, it was announced that Hyundai officially took a controlling stake in the company from SoftBank.
In October 2022, the company signed a pledge saying it would not support any weaponization of its robotic creations. Boston Dynamics offered other robotics companies to join the pledge with 5 other firms signing as well.
Products
BigDog
BigDog was a quadrupedal
robot
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...
created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics, in conjunction with
Foster-Miller
Foster-Miller, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Qinetiq, is an American-based military robotics manufacturer. Its two best-known products are its TALON robots and its LAST Armor.
Founded and based in Waltham, Massachusetts, it has offices in A ...
, the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States.
Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...
, and the
Harvard University Concord Field Station
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. It was funded by
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the Adv ...
in the hopes that it would be able to serve as a robotic
pack mule to accompany soldiers in terrain too rough for vehicles, but the project was shelved after BigDog was deemed too loud to be used in combat. Instead of wheels, BigDog used four legs for movement, allowing it to move across surfaces that would defeat wheels. Called "the world's most ambitious legged robot", it was designed to carry alongside a soldier at , traversing rough terrain at inclines up to 35 degrees.
Cheetah
The Cheetah is a four-footed robot that gallops at , which as of August 2012 is a land speed record for legged robots.
A similar but independently developed robot also known as Cheetah is made by MIT's Biomimetic Robotics Lab, which, by 2014, could jump over obstacles while running. By 2018 the robot was able to climb stairs.
LittleDog
Released around 2010, LittleDog is a small quadruped
robot
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...
developed for
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the Adv ...
by Boston Dynamics for research. Unlike BigDog, which is run by Boston Dynamics, LittleDog is intended as a testbed for other institutions. Boston Dynamics maintains the robots for DARPA as a standard platform.
LittleDog has four legs, each powered by three electric motors. The legs have a large range of motion. The robot is strong enough for climbing and dynamic locomotion gaits. The onboard PC-level computer does sensing, actuator control and communications. LittleDog's sensors measure joint angles, motor currents, body orientation and foot/ground contact. Control programs access the robot through the Boston Dynamics Robot API. Onboard lithium polymer batteries allow for 30 minutes of continuous operation without recharging. Wireless communications and data logging support remote operation and data analysis. LittleDog development is funded by the DARPA Information Processing Technology Office.
PETMAN
PETMAN (Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin) is a bipedal device constructed for testing
chemical protection suits. It is the first anthropomorphic robot that moves dynamically like a person.
LS3
![Legged Squad Support System robot prototype](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Legged_Squad_Support_System_robot_prototype.jpg)
Legged Squad Support System (LS3), also known as AlphaDog, is a militarized version of
BigDog
BigDog is a dynamically stable quadruped military robot that was created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station. It was funded by DARPA, but the proj ...
. It is ruggedized for military use, with the ability to operate in hot, cold, wet, and dirty environments.
According to Lt. Col. Joe Hitt and the US Marine Corps's program manager "The vision for LS3 is to combine the capabilities of a pack mule with the intelligence of a trained animal". LS3 is capable of reacting to visual or oral commands and uses an on board GPS system, along with computer vision (
LIDAR
Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...
and IR), to guide itself through terrain. Due to its ability to track oral commands, soldiers within the field found it difficult to hold a conversation with this bot in a vicinity because it would unknowingly follow commands not given to itself. Unlike its living counterparts, LS3 can march for 19.88 miles (32 km) before running out of fuel. The robot also doesn't suffer from the shortcomings of bleeding and falling over, a problem with many pack mules.
Atlas
The Agile Anthropomorphic Robot "Atlas" is a 5-foot (152.4 cm) bipedal
humanoid robot
A humanoid robot is a robot resembling the human body in shape. The design may be for functional purposes, such as interacting with human tools and environments, for experimental purposes, such as the study of bipedal locomotion, or for other pur ...
, based on Boston Dynamics' earlier PETMAN humanoid robot, and designed for a variety of search and rescue tasks.
In February 2016 Boston Dynamics published a YouTube video entitled "Atlas, The Next Generation" showing a new humanoid robot about 5' tall (152.4 cm). In the video, the robot is shown performing a number of tasks that would have been difficult or impossible for the previous generation of humanoid robots.
A video posted to the Boston Dynamics channel of YouTube dated October 11, 2018, titled "Parkour Atlas", shows the robot easily running up 2' high steps onto a platform. Atlas is shown in a September 2019 YouTube video doing "More Parkour".
Spot
On June 23, 2016, Boston Dynamics revealed the four-legged canine-inspired Spot which only weighs 25 kg (55 pounds) and is lighter than their other products.
In November 2017, a promotional video of the Spot using its forward claw to open a door for another robot reached #1 on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
, with over 2 million views. A later video the same month showed Spot persisting in attempting to open the door in the face of human interference. Viewers perceived the robot as "creepy" and "reminiscent of all kinds of sci-fi robots that wouldn't give up in their missions to seek and destroy".
On May 11, 2018, CEO of Boston Dynamics
Marc Raibert
Marc Raibert (born December 22, 1949) is the founder, former CEO, and now Chairman of Boston Dynamics, a robotics company known for creating BigDog, Atlas, Spot, and Handle. Before starting Boston Dynamics, Raibert was professor of Electrical Engi ...
on TechCrunch Robotics Session 2018 announced that the Spot robot was in pre-production and preparing for commercial availability in 2019. On its website, Boston Dynamics highlights that Spot is the "quietest robot
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
have built." The company says it has plans with contract manufacturers to build the first 100 Spots later that year for commercial purposes, with them starting to scale production with the goal of selling Spot in 2019. However, in September 2019, journalists were informed that the robots will not be sold, but they will be given on lease to selected business partners. In November 2019 Massachusetts State Police became the first law enforcement agency to use Spot as a robot cop, as well as in the unit's bomb squad.
Since January 23, 2020, Spot's SDK is available for anyone via
GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continuous ...
. It will allow programmers to develop custom applications for Spot to do various actions that could be used across different industries. On June 16, 2020 Boston Dynamics made Spot available for the general public to purchase at a price of .
On June 23, 2020, a lone Spot named 'Zeus' was used by
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...
at their
Boca Chica Starship Test Site to help contain sub-cooled liquid nitrogen and to inspect 'Potentially Dangerous' sites at and around the Launchpad.
On July 9, 2020, a team of Spot robots performed as cheerleaders in the stands at a baseball match between the
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. They compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League.
The team was formerly known as the Nankai Hawks and was based in Osaka. ...
and the
Rakuten Eagles, backed by a team of SoftBank
Pepper Robots.
Spot performed inspection tasks on the
Skarv floating production storage and offloading
A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil. An FPSO vessel is designed to receive h ...
vessel in November 2020.
On April 9, 2021
Michael Reeves
Michael Reeves (17 October 1943 – 11 February 1969) was an English film director and screenwriter. He is best remembered for the 1968 film ''Witchfinder General'' (known in the US as ''Conqueror Worm''). A few months after the film's rel ...
made a Youtube video where he attached a pressurized beer canister and phallic nozzle in order to detect red plastic cups and dispense beer into them.
On March 18, 2022, artist
Agnieszka Pilat sold a painting created by Spot for $40,000 at the home of
Brian Boitano
Brian Anthony Boitano (born October 22, 1963) is an American figure skater from Sunnyvale, California. He is the 1988 Olympic champion, the 1986 and 1988 World Champion, and the 1985–1988 U.S. National Champion.
He turned professional foll ...
to benefit Ukrainian refugees. The painting, titled "Sunrise March," was created by applying paint on Spot's feet and having the robot rotate in circles.
Handle
Handle is a research robot with two flexible legs on wheels and two "hands" for manipulating or carrying objects. It can stand tall, travel at and jump vertically. It uses electric power to operate various electric and hydraulic actuators, with a range of about on one battery charge. Handle uses many of the same dynamics, balance and mobile manipulation principles found in the other robots by Boston Dynamics but, with only about 10 actuated joints, it is significantly less complex.
Stretch
On March 29, 2021, Boston Dynamics announced via a video on their YouTube channel the Stretch robot that was designed for warehouse automation. The machine was able to lift up to 50 pound objects using a suction cup array.
Pick
Pick is a robot just like Stretch but fixed in a particular place. It is designed to carry boxes. It can identify a box in less than a second. It automatically disposes of the sheet of cardboard.
Factory Safety Service Robot
The Factory Safety Service Robot was unveiled on September 17, 2021. It was the first joint venture with Hyundai Motor Group. The robot is based on the existing Boston Dynamics robot Spot. Its integrated thermal camera and 3D LiDAR system help detect nearby people, monitor fire hazards, and recognize open and closed doors.
In popular culture
*
"Metalhead", a 2017 episode of ''
Black Mirror
''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Individual episodes explore a diversity of genres, but most are set in near-future dystopias with science fiction technology—a type of speculative fictio ...
'', features killer-robot dogs resembling, and inspired by, Boston Dynamics robot dogs.
* In June 2019, a parody video went viral across social media in which a robot resembling Atlas was abused, before turning on its human attackers. The video turned out to be the work of
Corridor Digital
Corridor Digital is an American production studio based in Los Angeles, known for creating pop-culture-related viral online short-form videos since 2010, as well as producing and directing the ''Battlefield''-inspired web series ''Rush'' and the ...
, who used the watermark "Bosstown Dynamics" instead of "Boston Dynamics". This video tricked many people, causing them to believe it was real.
* In ''
Heroes of the Storm
''Heroes of the Storm'' is a crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released for Microsoft Windows and macOS on June 2, 2015. The game features various characters from Bli ...
'' (2015), a multiplayer video game by
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduat ...
, playable heroes are able to move quickly through the battleground by using a mount called "Project: D.E.R.P.A.", which references one of Boston Dynamics' quadrupedal robots.
* The HBO Show
''Silicon Valley'' has made two prominent references to the company ‒ an
episode
An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a series intended for radio, television or streaming consumption.
The noun ''episode'' is derived from the Greek term ''epeisodion'' (), meaning t ...
featured a robotics company called Somerville Dynamics, named after
Somerville
Somerville may refer to:
*Somerville College, Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford
Places
*Somerville, Victoria, Australia
* Somerville, Western Australia, a suburb of Kalgoorlie, Australia
* Somerville, New Zealand, a subur ...
, a city that neighbors Boston; and the season premiere of Season 3 featured a real Boston Dynamics Spot robot, seen crossing a street.
* In 2022 the Spot robot was featured as a background extra in an episode of ''
The Book of Boba Fett
''The Book of Boba Fett'' is an American space Western television series created by Jon Favreau for the streaming service Disney+. It is part of the ''Star Wars'' franchise and a spin-off from the series ''The Mandalorian'', taking place in the ...
'' TV series.
See also
*
Biomimetics
Biomimetics or biomimicry is the emulation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems. The terms "biomimetics" and "biomimicry" are derived from grc, βίος (''bios''), life, and μίμησ ...
*
List of robotic dogs
Robotic dogs are robots designed to resemble dogs in appearance and behavior, usually incorporating canine characteristics such as barking or tail-wagging. In addition, many such "dogs" have appeared as toys and in fiction.
Military and resea ...
References
External links
Official website
{{Portalbar, Companies
University spin-offs
Robotics companies of the United States
Technology companies based in the Boston area
Manufacturing companies based in Massachusetts
Companies based in Waltham, Massachusetts
American companies established in 1992
Manufacturing companies established in 1992
Technology companies established in 1992
1992 establishments in Massachusetts
Softbank portfolio companies
Discontinued Google acquisitions
Alphabet Inc.
Hyundai Motor Group
2013 mergers and acquisitions
2017 mergers and acquisitions
2021 mergers and acquisitions
American subsidiaries of foreign companies