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Google Has Finally Found a Buyer For Its Scary Robot Companies Boston Dynamics and Schaft: SoftBank (recode.net)
Japan's SoftBank is buying robotics group Boston Dynamics -- the makers of the bipedal Atlas, the jumping Sand Flea and the animal-like BigDog, Spot and Wildcat robots -- from Alphabet, more than a year after Google's parent put the unit up for sale. From a report: Google acquired Boston Dynamics in 2013 under the leadership of Andy Rubin, the co-inventor of Android, who was leading a wave of acquisitions of robotics companies under the search giant. Boston Dynamics' robots routinely make headlines, including a high-profile demo at this year's TED conference. The company, led by CEO Marc Raibert, has made a robotic cheetah that can run 28 miles per hour, a robotic dog that it recently used to deliver packages to doorsteps in Boston, and most recently a massive legged and wheeled robot that can clear hurdles and walk down stairs. The firm has been hailed by other roboticists for its ability to blend hardware and artificial intelligence to make machines capable of dynamic, agile movements. Its most recent wheeled robot, Handle, can manipulate objects that are comparable to its own weight, and its four-legged, animal-like robots can maneuver over different types of terrain.
That's significant. Schaft has better actuator technology; electrical, rather than hydraulic. They built a very nice humanoid robot a few years ago.
As I wrote last year when BD came up, the guy behind BigDog was Dr. Martin Buehler, who previously had an ambulatory robotics lab at McGill, and whose group built the first good running robot quadruped. He's at Disney now. Raibert was primarily responsible for the hydraulics; his name is on the patent for that. But unless SoftBank wants to build giant mecha, hydraulic systems are too bulky. Also, Raibert is 68 now.
When Google bought both companies, I thought they'd put Boston Dynamics control algorithms on Schaft hardware. That did not happen, as far as anyone on the outside can tell. But everyone loves Schaft, especially their hardware.
Does anybody want to to buy my Lego Mindstorms?
I wonder if this company, as now a japanese owned brand, will be more likely to push thier robot development for in home uses instead of industrial uses. I want a robot to do my dishes.
quis custodiet ipsos custodes
What I find most odd about this situation is how reliant Google's robotics division was on Andy Rubin. The only reason I have found for why Google was selling Boston Dynamics is that after Rubin's departure the string of Google robotics acquisitions were left without direction. I can understand why a small startup can be significantly impacted by the loss of one key contributor, but it's surprising for the strategy of a huge enterprise like Google to be so dependent on a single SVP.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
That is a new use of the word. I invented a sandwich this morning. The I will invent a new route to get to work. I work with inventing products but to day it has been invented that we should go to a big meeting instead of working. I might get the opurtunity of inventing a new dish for lunch. We are going to a hamburger place and I will invent a burger with everything on in except mustard!
The Japanese are crazy about robots and are eager to deploy them in society. SV and everyone else thinks of robotics as part of one of the "hot new things" along with the ML, AI, cloud, mobile, IoT, etc.
On June 9, 2017 Skynet, which only just became self-aware, purchased a robot army.
This is /. I know who Boston Dynamics is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
SoftBank Group Corp. (? Sofutobanku Gurpu Kabushiki-gaisha)[4] is a Japanese multinational telecommunications and Internet corporation established on September 3, 1981, and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It has operations in broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-commerce, Internet, technology services, finance, media and marketing, semiconductor design, and other businesses.[5] The company is headed by founder Masayoshi Son. ... ... ... ... ...
SoftBank bought COMDEX from The Interface Group in 1995
On January 28, 2008, it was announced that SoftBank and Tiffany & Co. collaborated in making a limited 10 model-only cellphone
On October 15, 2012, SoftBank announced plans to take control of American Sprint Nextel by purchasing a 70% stake for $20 billion
In 2014, SoftBank co-designed Pepper, a humanoid robot, with Aldebaran Robotics.
modeling robots on nature is a stupid idea. evolutionary is a really shitty way to search for solutions to problems.
A company run by a Japanese billionaire that's obsessed with AI just bought a company that produces "Nightmare Inducing" animal like robots...
Nope, Don't see how this can possibly go horribly wrong.
Until we have good artificial muscle there is no way walking robots can be deployed at any kind of scale for anything.
Why aren't there a lot of companies working on hands or small object manipulating devices? I mean a hand is the thing that would be the most useful in factories. Walking robots are not useful in the factory because there are wheel robots or conveyor belts that can accomplish the task.
why Google sold it. It's a research company. It's not like it's making money.
If they wanted to sell it, then someone should explain why Google bought it in the first place.