Everyone saw the recent Atlas videos. Even with the QR code shortcuts, the demo was nothing short of miraculous. No one is even close to what Boston Dynamics is doing with legged locomotion, which is an insanely valuable technology. There's no way Google would just let this company go because of monetization or PR reasons. Something else is happening behind the scenes that we aren't yet aware of.
Google is the moonshots and the AI company. If anyone could monetize this it was Google. This really does come as a big shock. Doesn't google have billions as cash. How much of a dent is Boston Dynamics really to the finance sheet. I bet there is a chash of egos involved in this sale.
the future of robotics is taking advantage of passive-dynamics. the problem with boston dynamics was they leaned heavily on active control, which makes locomotion energetically expensive. when you watch those videos, notice how lumbering the motion is and hoe hard those machines work. i would bet that that is the underlying reason why google pulled out.
I watched the videos, and I see what looks like machine learning managing those legs, and whether there is active or passive dynamics driving the motion of the legs is unclear. I am no expert in robotics though, so someone correct me if I am wrong. If you are suggesting systems like Theo Jansen's Strandbeest is the future of robots, you are sorely mistaken. How would a robot utilizing passive dynamics climb steps or a ladder, or dance, or pick someone up and jump across a gap?
