[HH] Google acquires Boston Dynamics; Zoomer robotic dog

[Tom Metro]

Google Adds to Its Menagerie of Robots
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/technology/google-adds-to-its-menagerie-of-robots.html?_r=1&

  Google confirmed on Friday that it had completed the acquisition of
  Boston Dynamics, an engineering company that has designed mobile
  research robots for the Pentagon. The company, based in Waltham,
  Mass., has gained an international reputation for machines that walk
  with an uncanny sense of balance and even -- cheetahlike -- run faster
  than the fastest humans.

  It is the eighth robotics company that Google has acquired in the last
  half-year.

I wonder if any of the others have been from our local "Silicon Valley
of Robotics." Given the concentration of robotics research happening
around here, maybe Andy Rubin (the guy heading up Google's robotics
initiatives) will move out here, and we will soon have a Google Robotics
R&D facility in the area.


  Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992 by Marc Raibert, a former
  professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It has not
  sold robots commercially, but has pushed the limits of mobile and
  off-road robotics technology, mostly for Pentagon clients like the
  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa. Early on, the
  company also did consulting work for Sony on consumer robots like the
  Aibo robotic dog.

Speaking of the Sony Aibo robotic dog...I see in one of the holiday
sales fliers the Zoomer robotic dog ($80 @ Target), which superficially
appears to be an Aibo knock-off:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZgQUoEJEdw

I wonder if it will prove to be as hackable. (Aibo knock-offs are not
unusual. Looks like there have been a bunch over the years, including an
open hardware version.)


See the article for links to several YouTube videos featuring Boston
Dynamics robots. They're quite impressive if you haven't seen them.


  Under a $10.8 million contract, Boston Dynamics is currently supplying
  Darpa with a set of humanoid robots named Atlas to participate in the
  Darpa Robotics Challenge, a two-year contest with a $2 million prize.

Did I read that right that they got paid $10M to participate in a
contest with a $2M prize?

 -Tom