Google buys up military robot making company

Google has bought Boston Dynamics, yet another robotics company, which contracts for the US military.

16:23 16 December 2013

Google has acquired Boston Dynamics, an engineering company that developed Cheetah, the world’s fastest-running robot.

This is the eighth robotics company that Google bought this year, leading industry analysts to speculate that the company has big plans afoot in the hardware market, most likely in their mobile phone division.

Details of the deals, which include the monetary value and the size of the project led by former Android boss Andy Rubin, are yet to be revealed.

In a statement, Chief Executive Larry Page said: "I am excited about Andy Rubin's next project. His last big bet, Android, started off as a crazy idea that ended up putting a supercomputer in hundreds of millions of pockets.

“It is still very early days for this, but I can't wait to see the progress."

Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992 by a former professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The company, which does not sell robots commercially, consulted for Japanese electronics giant Sony on consumer applications such as the robot dog, Aibo.