Boston Dynamics’ Founder on the Future of Robotics

Stuart Bradford / IEEE Spectrum

When Marc Raibert founded Boston Dynamics in 1992, he wasn’t even sure it was going to be a robotics company—he thought it might become a modeling and simulation company instead. Now, of course, Boston Dynamics is the authority in legged robots, with its Atlas biped and Spot quadruped. But as the company focuses more on commercializing its technology, Raibert has become more interested in pursuing the long-term vision of what robotics can be.

To that end, Raibert founded the Boston Dynamics AI Institute in August of 2022. Funded by Hyundai (the company also acquired Boston Dynamics in 2020), the Institute’s first few projects will focus on making robots useful outside the lab by teaching them to better understand the world around them.