Google Acquires Boston Dynamics, But to What End? 

On Friday Google announced that it has completed its acquisition of Boston Dynamics, the robotics company famous for creating some of the world’s most advanced robots.

Boston Dynamics makes the eighth robotics company that Google has picked up in the last six months, although the company hasn’t yet revealed any specific plans for its newfound robot menagerie.

Founded by Marc Raibert, a former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston Dynamics has made a name for itself with a number of animal-like robots, as well as one humanoid model, Atlas, which has garnered extra attention recently thanks to its role in DARPA’s $2 million Robotics Challenge.

The effort is being led by Andy Rubin, who was previously charged with heading Google’s efforts in developing Android. Rubin’s switch from mobile to robotics however, which was announced in March of this year, was not explained other than to say that he would be working on “moonshots,” which, like NASA’s Apollo program, refers to an ambitious project that seems impossible, but may just pay off in the end.

Current speculation is centered around Google’s advertising revenue, which makes up roughly 95 percent of the company’s $50 billion each year. Already projects like Google Glass, Google’s self-driving car and the company’s “Calico” life extension project are looking to supplement this income and perhaps even steal the spotlight.

So where exactly do robots fit into this picture?

First, Google says that it plans to honor Boston Dynamics’ existing contracts, such as the $10.8 million contract with DARPA, but does not plan to pursue any other military contracts going forward. The purpose of the Robotics Challenge is to create robots capable of going where human first responders can’t in case of a natural disaster or events like the nuclear power plant meltdown in Fukushima, Japan.

But aside from Atlas and Boston Dynamics’ zoo of cat-like splinters and even tree-climbers, Google now has in its hands technologies such as advanced robotic arms, grasping hands, sophisticated computer vision, and even advanced sensor technology.

But all Google and Rubin have said so far is that the initial development won’t be dragging on for years, suggesting that we should find out what its moonshot is sooner rather than later.

Already some have speculated that on the more boring end of the spectrum of possibilities is the production of robots to maintain Google’s many datacenters, automating the process of adding new servers or replacing old hardware. Equally possible is the use of robotics to automate manufacturing, but regardless of the application, robotics is only set to grow.