Boston Dynamics

So I've been an avid follower of Boston Dynamics on YouTube for about the past year or two, and I think this is the first time I've been very impressed with a company's progress with their robotics program. They bring us an actual 'line' of robots, both 2 and 4 legged applications, that are making significant progress within the last 10 or so years now. I remember seeing their videos when I was unfamiliar with their company, when they were doing testing on the larger BigDog, and I remember watching almost in disbelief this robotic structure with legs walking and balancing on it's own! It was almost unreal the first few times. But even watching their progress today and seeing them advance step by step is a real treat! Just take a look at one of their videos here showing Atlas, one of their more prominent robots, running, leaping and jumping with controlled balance up some steps on it's own! Wow. Unfortunately, I think a lot of movies depicting age old robots and androids already fully functional have sort of ruined the 'wow' factor today, but when you think about where we really are and the progress made in our real world, it is pretty amazing.


Boston Dynamics have already done field testing with their Spot Mini and are hoping to release a version as early as next year in fields like construction, to help with various tasks such as overseeing the progress of development. In one video seen on Instagram quite recently, they capture one of their robots picking up a large wooden substrate and nailing it to a structure with a nail gun! Although quite slow and a bit awkward, I don't have any doubts that they will improve the application of this robot and it's ability to do tasks like this more efficiently. It's just a matter of time, I believe, when robots will be working alongside humanity in various fields in a variety of applications, including law enforcement. I believe that K9s will eventually be replaced by their 4 legged robots such as Wildcat or Spot to help assist them. At this point I think they are many ways that these robots can & will be used, and it will be exciting to see (at least for me) how they are used and disbursed. And along with the ever-progressing 3D printing technology, robots may start being produced the same way an automotive assembly line functions. Think Bicentennial Man. I think that movie gives us a good indication of how robots and androids may eventually evolve, and without the whole 'robots will take over' scare factor.


More to come! :)