Boston Dynamics creates robots that work in warehouses, measure human temperature, and do somersaults better than acrobats. We tell the company’s history and recall its main inventions
How it all began
Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert was born in 1949. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1973 and a doctorate from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 1977. Raibert worked in robotics at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology. In 1979, he received a grant from American scientist Ivan Sutherland to develop a jumping mechanism, and in 1980, from DAPRA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).
In the 1980s, Raibert created a laboratory based on one of the MIT departments and headed it until the early 1990s. The university’s website even has a page from that time. In 1983, he made a breakthrough in robotics: he developed a one-legged jumping mechanism, the 3D One-Leg Hopper , capable of maintaining balance. As the creator explained, it is easier to maintain balance on one leg and there is no need to figure out how to coordinate the movements of two legs at once.
Raybert’s early developments even made it into the movies – in the early 1990s, the scientist helped create robots for the film “Rising Sun.” After filming, Raybert thought about releasing his own product – robots that look like people and animals, and in 1992, together with a group of engineers, he created Boston Dynamics. The company worked for three years at the University of Massachusetts and completely separated from it in 1995.
And although modern robots are mostly on tracks or wheels, Boston Dynamics has opted for mechanisms with two or four legs – limbs are universal and provide much more possibilities.
Boston Dynamics Robots: Dog, Cheetah, and Flea
Boston Dynamics initially worked primarily for the US Department of Defense, creating robots that could navigate rough terrain for military purposes.
This is how the first robots appeared, some of which were later declassified. Due to the similarity with animal behavior, Boston Dynamics came up with appropriate names for the mechanisms.
Dog
BigDog was released in 2005. It is a four-legged robot, similar to a dog, but the size of a bull. BigDog could carry up to 150 kg of supplies and equipment for soldiers, move at a speed of up to 6.4 km / h, like a person, even in mud, puddles and uphill, maintaining balance. Due to the loud noise from the internal combustion engine, the BigDog project was closed in 2015, but thanks to it, the company became famous outside the professional circle, and the videos published on YouTube helped in this.
Cheetah
In the early 2010s, the company introduced Cheetah , a cheetah robot that was the fastest four-legged robot in the world at the time. It moved at a speed of 45 km/h (thanks to its flexible upper part), but could not operate autonomously. Based on it, WildCat appeared in 2013. Also with a fuel engine, but already autonomous, it moved at a speed of up to 26 km/h.
Sand flea
Boston Dynamics also worked on compact insect-shaped models. The Sand Flea has four wheels, operates silently (on compressed gas), and jumps over obstacles as high as a three-story building.
Anthropomorphic robot
In the 2010s, the first anthropomorphic robot, Petman , appeared . The company’s founder was skeptical about the idea of creating a human-like robot, and Petman only walked on two legs because it was used to test hazmat suits.
The Google Deal and the Most Popular Robots
In 2013, Boston Dynamics, along with other robotics startups, was bought by Google. The deal amounted to $500 million. Under Google’s management, the company operated until 2017, but it was during this short period of time that it created two of the most important robots in its history – Atlas and Spot.
Introduced in 2013, Atlas is a two-legged robot that is one and a half meters tall and weighs 75 kilograms. It has a set of stereo cameras, can overcome obstacles, climb, do somersaults and other tricks, and carry loads weighing up to 11 kg. The New York Times described the debut of this robot as follows: “Computers are starting to grow legs and move around in the physical world.” And they called Atlas a new species — Robo sapiens.
Spot was introduced in 2016 — it is a four-legged robot weighing about 25 kg. It differs from previous robodogs in that it has electric drives, due to which it moves almost silently. Thanks to a set of sensors and cameras, it can recognize faces and objects, as well as move up stairs, has excellent coordination, can learn, navigate the terrain and reach speeds of up to 5.8 km/h.
The little brother of this robot is SpotMini . It can also be equipped with an arm that looks like a long neck and head, allowing it to pick up and carry things. The battery charge is enough for an hour and a half of autonomous work.
In February 2017, the company introduced a new robot with four limbs and wheels on its feet. Handle was created to transport things; it can lift a load of up to 50 kg. The robot is 2 meters high and has a speed of 15 km/h. The range with a fully charged battery is greater than that of other robots, 25 km: moving on wheels saves energy.
The alliance between Google and Boston Dynamics was unsuccessful because they did not agree on the goals of their work: the former wanted to create a well-selling product, and the latter wanted to create perfect, but not necessarily successful in the market, robots.
The company today
In 2017, Boston Dynamics underwent another change of ownership, when the startup was acquired by the Japanese company SoftBank. But the company also spent little time under SoftBank’s wing and did not become profitable.
In 2020, the startup bought the Hyundai automaker for almost $1.1 billion. Hyundai hoped to create new “walking” cars in tandem with Boston Dynamics, as well as robots for logistics and production automation. Thus, in 2021, the company introduced another robot, designed, like its predecessor Handle, for work in a warehouse and for unloading cars. Stretch can move up to 800 boxes in an hour – each weighing up to 23 kg.
The concern also shares practical experience of using the machines. For example, Spot was used as security guards at one of the factories.
The joining of Hyundai Boston Dynamics is celebrated with a video on the YouTube channel – a dance performed by Spot robots to a song by the Korean group BTS.
The popularity of inventions is growing
Boston Dynamics robots are popular online. The most-viewed video — 152 million — was released in 2018, in which Spot opens a door. And in late 2020, the company released a video in which Atlas, Spot, and other robots dance. The video went viral, with more than 38 million views.
Popular videos show robots being prevented from delivering packages, but they stubbornly go to their goal. And this is not just entertainment content — this is how the company advertises its product. You can purchase Boston Dynamics robots on the company’s website in the section with models available for sale. At the start of sales in Europe (June 2020), Spot cost $74.5 thousand. Spot Arm with all the accompanying equipment in 2022 cost almost $205 thousand excluding taxes.
The Future of Boston Dynamics Robots
The brainchild of Marc Raibert is not afraid of water and fire: they can perform the work of a courier, be in hazardous industries and carry heavy loads. They also help to minimize the contact of medical workers with potentially infected people: for example, during the pandemic in Boston, robots measured the body temperature of coronavirus patients, monitored the pulse and breathing of people, and provided video communication between patients and doctors.
In the future, as Mark Raibert says , his robots may become more utilitarian – they can be used not only in hospitals and factories, but also in social institutions and at home, such robots will help the elderly and disabled.
