Boston Dynamics, which is owned by Softbank, began as a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Marc Raibert and his colleagues first developed robots that ran and maneuvered like animals. Boston Dynamics has since become a world leader in mobile robots, tackling some of the toughest robotics challenges.
It combines the principles of dynamic control and balance with sophisticated mechanical designs, cutting-edge electronics, and next-generation software for high-performance robots equipped with perception, navigation, and intelligence. Its robots include the Atlas humanoid, and Handle wheeled robot, and Spot quadruped. In June 2020, Boston Dynamics started selling Spot, marking the first time the company commercialized a robot.
Recent News Items
Marco da Silva, senior director of R&D at Boston Dynamics, will discuss at the Robotics Summit & Expo how the company is developing Spot for real-World applications.
From seeing Boston Dynamics’ Stretch robot at work to Alphabet closing down one of its subsidiaries, there was no shortage of robotics news in February 2023.
Strech’s first commercial application is with DHL Supply Chain, a company that Boston Dynamics has been collaborating with since 2018.
With a new routine where Atlas assists at a simulated job site, Boston Dynamics engineers have pushed the humanoid one step closer to performing real-world manipulation tasks at human speed.
Ghost Robotics said “Boston Dynamics is drawing on their considerably larger resources to litigate instead of innovate.”
Boston Dynamics claims Ghost Robotics infringed on seven patents related to Boston Dynamics’ Spot quadruped robot.
Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Boston Dynamics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics and Unitree pledged not to support the weaponization of their products and are calling for others in the industry to do the same.
The company is enhancing its security services by integrating the Boston Dynamics Spot robot with a payload of cameras and additional sensors.
NFI will use Stretch in its network of import deconsolidation centers, cross-dock and transload facilities, as well as floor-loaded inbound and outbound distribution centers.
Sally Miller, DHL Supply Chain’s chief information officer for North America, spoke to The Robot Report about the types of robots the company uses.
Photo Gallery
Boston Dynamics
DEARBORN, MI. July 27, 2020 – Fluffy looks at Scouter, an Autonomous Mobile Robot that can autonomously navigate facilities while scanning and capturing 3-D point clouds to generate a CAD of the facility. If an area is too tight for Scouter, Fluffy comes to the rescue. Ford is tapping four-legged robots at its Van Dyke Transmission Plant in early August to laser scan the plant, helping engineers update the original computer-aided design. These robots can be deployed into tough-to-reach areas within the plant to scan the area with laser scanners and high-definition cameras, collecting data used to retool plants, saving Ford engineers time and money. Ford is leasing two robots, nicknamed Fluffy and Spot, from Boston Dynamics – a company known for building sophisticated mobile robots.