Boston Dynamics marks the eight robotics company Google acquired this year, so it’s pretty clear that this tech giant has something big in store for us. Hopefully, the new wave of Androids built by Google will come in peace and won’t try to ex-ter-mi-nate or delete us right away.
Andy Rubin, the former boss of Google’s Android division, is now in charge with bringing the Cyber Apocalypse upon us. Boston Dynamics has made a name of itself by constructing many incredibly interesting bipedal and quadrupedal robots, including the LS3 mechanized follower, an antropomorphic man robot, the AlphaDog, the Little Dog, a robot that mimics primate movements for rescue operations, Big Dog, the Wild Cat (pictured below) and Cheetah, the fastest legged robot ever constructed.
The world found out about Google’s latest acquisition via Rubin’s Twitter account, where he pointed out that “The future is awesome!” while keeping the price and the size of the project all to himself. There’s no denying that Google’s involvement in this sector makes a lot of people curious, but a bit of concern isn’t out of place. After all, Boston Dynamics makes many of its robots for the military, or more specifically, for Pentagon’s DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). I wonder if after the acquisition Google will terminate Boston Dynamics’ contracts with the military or if they will start producing the next Universal Soldier (I noticed that JCVD has made a comeback recently, mostly in ads for GoDaddy – The Baker, The Florist – and Volvo, so a reference to his films wouldn’t hurt).
On his Google+ profile, Larry Page, Chief Executive of Google, stated the following in regard to Rubin’s new activities: “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.”
Jokes aside, I am very curious myself as to what Google intends to do with so many robotics companies, and in particular, with Boston Dynamics. In the last 15 years, since Google was founded, the world benefited from a lot of innovative products, both in terms of hardware and software, so I’m sure that this new path the company is taking will lead to another successful story.
If you liked this post, please check the Google robot that writes Facebook and Twitter status updates and Boston Dynamics LS3, the mechanized follower.
