Boston Dynamics

About

Boston Dynamics is a robotics and engineering company formerly owned by Alphabet, Inc. and currently owned by Softbank best known online for their robot designs capable of various types of locomotion.

History

In 1992, former MIT professor Marc Raibert formed Boston Dynamics. On December 13th, 2013, Boston Dynamics was acquired by the Alphabet, Inc. research and development facility Google X. In March 2016, Bloomberg News reported that Toyota and Amazon were rumored to be potential buyers of the company.

Online Presence

On March 28th, 2000, the BostonDynamics.com^[2] site was launched. On December 28th, 2013, the /r/BostonDynamics^[1] subreddit was launched for discussions about the robotics company.

YouTube Channel

On February 16th, 2009, the Boston Dynamics YouTube channel posted footage of their LittleDog quadraped robot walking across a table (shown below, left). On April 22nd, 2010, the channel uploaded footage of their BigDog quadraped robot walking through the woods (shown below). Within seven years, the video gained over 6.4 million views and 5,100 comments.

On October 30th, 2011, Boston Dynamics released a video of their PETMAN anthropomorphic robot walking bipedally, accumulating more than 4.4 million views and 3,500 comments within six years (shown below, left). On March 27th, 2012, the channel released a video of their Sand Flea robot capable of jumping 30 feet into the air (shown below, right). Over the next five years, the video gathered over 10 million views and 6,500 comments.

On October 3rd, 2013, a video showcasing the WildCat galloping robot running around a parking lot was released (shown below,). Over the next four years, the video gained over 22 million views and 19,800 comments. On December 22nd, 2015, Boston Dynamics released a Chritmas-themed video of a woman dressed as Santa Claus being pulled by robotic reindeer, which received more than 3.8 million views and 2,700 comments in two years (shown below, right).

On February 23rd, 2016, the channel released a video of the bipedal robot Atlas pushing a door open, walking in the woods and picturing up objects (shown below, left). Over the next year, the video accumulated upwards of 20 million views and 28,400 comments. On June 23rd, footage of the SpotMini quadraped robot was released, which used a retractable claw grabber to manipulate objects and right itself (shown below, right). Within eight months, the video gathered over 5.8 million views and 9,300 comments.

Handle

On February 27th, 2016, Boston Dynamics released a video on YouTube introducing their Handle robot, a wheeled design which stands 6.5 tall and can travel up to 9 mph and jump 4 feet high. Within 24 hours, the video received upwards of 1.7 million views and 6,500 comments. That evening, Twitter published a Moments page titled "The new Boston Dynamics robot can jump, lift, skate and probably kill you," highlighting notable tweets reacting to the video.^[3]

Search Interest

External References