July 10, 2018 ▸ Science, Technology

Episode 313: Boston Dynamics: The Real-Life Terminators?

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On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we oil up the servos and get ready to fight the upcoming robot overlords by exploring the history, robots, and unique funding source of the strangest corporation most people have never heard of—Boston Dynamics. Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992 as a means to fulfill its founder Marc Raibert’s lifelong dream of making robots that are supernatural in their abilities. That’s not creepy at all. It was an offshoot of the prestigious MIT, and its initial goal was to create functioning robotic legs. It did. And then some.

Most people who have heard of Boston Dynamics learned of them when their video of their first big robot, Big Dog, went viral in 2005. This robot was meant to be a pack mule for US troops and was able to carry 340 pounds up a 35% hill, even on ice and mud. It worked, but it was too loud since it relied on a diesel generator, so the project was scrapped by DARPA, the group who funded it.

But that wasn’t all DARPA funded through Boston Dynamics. In fact, before Google bought the company in 2013, it had given a total of $150 Million to the firm to push the boundaries of robotic innovation, even if they didn’t have a viable product to show for it. That’s what DARPA does, after all; it funds moonshot type projects like the Internet and GPS and gets them to work for the entire world (after, of course the US government uses the hell out of them first).

Boston Dynamics was sold off by Google to a Japanese firm called SoftBank once Google realized they made no products to sell (their money came from government contracts, which Google refused to accept). Oh, and they also wanted to distance themselves from the creepy robots that scarred the pants off of everyone with YouTube. Seriously, give them a look at the links below. We talk about Sand Flea, Little Dog, Spot Mini, Atlas, and any number of robots this firm has created. One day, their creations will kill us all. Seriously.

Raibert’s Horrible Geocities Website on mit.edu: http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/old-leglab/people/mxr.html

Good List of Creepy Videos: https://mashable.com/2018/06/27/learn-tableau-online-course-sale/#VsLnilcgNaqy