Boston Dynamics an American engineering and robotics design company founded by Marc Raibert, who spun the company off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992.

The company was acquired by Googe X in 2013. Four years later, Alphabet Inc. announced the sale of the company to Japan’s SoftBank Group for an undisclosed sum. In December 2020, Hyundai Motor Group acquired an 80% stake in the company from SoftBank for approximately $880 million. SoftBank Group retains about 20% through an affiliate.

It is a company which has appeared repeateadly in Mind The Post because it is one of the leaders, surely the most provocative, developing and deploying mobile robots enabling automation in unstructured or hard-to-traverse spaces, from industrial plants and construction sites to distribution centers and warehouses, or wild nature.

Boston Dynamics’ mission is to imagine and create exceptional robots that enrich people’s lives. We see this work as the next step in the evolution of machines that reduce the danger, repetition, and physically difficult aspects of work.

Marc Raibert’s dream has been for years to advance bipedal and quadrupedal robotics to a supernatural state, and his company has been “one of the only companies putting real R&D effort” into humanoid robots. He is a entrepreneurial hero who has been able to keep his project and his company alive and a leader of innovation for more than three decades. And perhaps, now landing on firm ground.

This week Boston Dynamics announced the retirement of the hydraulic Atlas and unveiled what comes next—a fully electric Atlas robot designed for real-world applications.

This journey will start with Hyundai—in addition to investing in us, the Hyundai team is building the next generation of automotive manufacturing capabilities, and it will serve as a perfect testing ground for new Atlas applications.

And here is the key. For years I discussed about the benefits and the future of the humanoid robot. I value the technological challenge to understand and “reproduce” our human, as well as other living beings, abilites. However I have argued against the general “competitive advantage” of the humanoid robot, and its role in the future.

This latest iteration of the Atlas robot builds on a long history of innovation and R&D pushing the limits of whole-body mobility and bimanual manipulation. From PETMAN testing protective clothing to the recently retired HD Atlas performing parkour, we have spent over a decade moving the state of the art forward with humanoid robotics.

Traditionally, we have focused on legged robots because we wanted to build robots that could balance and move dynamically—robots that could navigate unstructured, unknown, or antagonistic terrain with ease. The humanoid form factor is a useful design for robots working in a world designed for people.

However, that form factor doesn’t limit our vision of how a bipedal robot can move, what tools it needs to succeed, and how it can help people accomplish more. We designed the electric version of Atlas to be stronger, more dexterous, and more agile. Atlas may resemble a human form factor, but we are equipping the robot to move in the most efficient way possible to complete a task, rather than being constrained by a human range of motion. Atlas will move in ways that exceed human capabilities. Combining decades of practical experience with first principles thinking, we are confident in our ability to deliver a robot uniquely capable of tackling dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks in real applications.

kudos to Marc Raibert, Boston Dynamics, and Atlas!

____________________

Featured Image: Boston Dynamics’ New Electric Atlas