Tech
Toyota eyes poaching robot makers from Google
Boston Dynamics’ robots are at their best on shaky ground. The wobbly BigDog, its larger LS3 sibling, and the humanoid Atlas all shamble forward and recover from falls. The company, for sale by its owner Google, is now looking for a buyer, and now it appears they may have finally found a firm place to land: Toyota.
The Tokyo-based company has nursing care and medical robots in development, in addition to working on self-driving cars. Toyota could add up to 300 personnel to its robotics division with the acquisitions, the report said.
Boston Dynamics biped and quadruped robots were backed, in part, by the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), while Schaft’s robots gained fame at a DARPA competition for rescue robots.
Google was never really enthused about the robots, and after video of researchers knocking over the Atlas robot in testing circulated the web, the internet giant made moves to sell the robot-makers. The tests may have appeared cruel, especially given the humanoid nature of the robot, but were vital to see if the machine could get back up again after a fall (it can).
Read also: Facebook now deploys AI to combat offensive photos
Another reason for the timing of the sale may have to do with the LS3, or legged support system. Designed as a robot mule for the Marines, the LS3 could carry up to 400 pounds over rough terrain. It just couldn’t do it quietly, and after years of development for the military, the Corps decided against moving forward with a purchase.
Not having a deliverable product right from the start is fine for a robotics research lab, and it looks like that’s what they’ll be with Toyota. And Toyota, unlike Google, seems invested in the idea of robotics writ large.
Assuming the deal goes through, it should be good for both companies, and then only a matter of time before we see discounted BigDogs in the Middle East with guns strapped to their backs.
RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
INVESTIGATION: In Kwara, multimillion-naira milk processing plant is abandoned, converted to a chicken outlet
After the government spent millions of naira to establish a milk processing plant in Kwara State that would provided jobs...
SPECIAL REPORT: For Sokoto communities, promise of healthcare is akin to death sentence
In this story, ABDULRASHEED HAMMAD delves into the dire realities of Primary Health Care services in Sokoto State, shedding light...
ICYMI…SPECIAL REPORT: NNPCL hides behind PIA to frustrate disclosure, accountability
Nigeria’s major oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in what appears to be a common practice of disregard...
INVESTIGATION: Multi-million naira Ekiti resort center remains uncompleted a decade after
The multimillion-naira project, expected to comprise recreational buildings, now consists of cassava farmland, a bush used for excretion, and a...
SPECIAL REPORT: Torturous experiences of students with disabilities in Oyo tertiary institutions
For students with disabilities in Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions, learning is a torturous and distressing experience, considering the building structures...