After being purchased by Hyundai Motors the Boston Dynamics robots were ordered to dance.
Apparently, Hyundai Motors and Boston Dynamics combined Smart Mobility efforts will be supercharged. Everything from seeing eye robots to dancing military-grade enforcement droids could be in our future.
Smart, mobile, helpful. How did the testing of Spot go with the French military? Lethal?
Under the deal, Hyundai and Boston Dynamics anticipate that their combined manufacturing strengths will allow for mutual growth. Boston Dynamics is well known for its manufacturing advances. Their most recent robot, Stretch, is designed specifically to increase the efficiency of packing and unloading materials.
So will this acquisition lead to a robot army in the mobility industry?
Not yet, but it provides incredible potential for advancing transport and movement.
Their video announcing the acquisition depicts a blind man using the Spot as a seeing eye dog of sorts, which is made possible by the robot's wide-angle vision, data mapping, and sensors. Similar technology has been experimented on at the University of California, Berkeley using the Mini Cheetah, a small animal-like robot created at MIT's Biomimetics Lab. The Mini Cheetah uses a series of lasers to identify objects in the surrounding environment and guide a person around them. Additionally, the Mini Cheetah can store data on the intended destination, allowing it to map out the easiest and safest route. It was also the first four-legged robot to do a backflip.
