Boston Dynamics

Boston Dynamics is an American robotics company that develops mobile robots for industrial inspection, logistics, research, and material handling. It was founded in 1992 by Marc Raibert, drawing on work at the Leg Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[1][2][3] The company is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Its current robot portfolio consists of the Spot quadruped, the Stretch warehouse robot, and the electric Atlas humanoid robot, supported by the Orbit fleet and site-management software.^{[1][17][19][22][25]}

Boston Dynamics began as a research and engineering business. Its early work emphasized dynamic balance, legged locomotion, simulation, and robots able to move through terrain that is difficult for wheels or tracks. Research systems such as BigDog and the original hydraulic Atlas were funded in part through United States government programs, including work for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).^[4][6] The company later shifted toward commercial products: Spot went on general sale in 2020, Stretch became available for purchase in 2022, and Boston Dynamics introduced a product version of electric Atlas in January 2026.^[16][19][23] In September 2026 it opened the Robotics Metaplant Application Center, a site for training Atlas robots on automotive manufacturing tasks at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America near Savannah, Georgia.^[50]

History

Leg Laboratory roots and founding

Raibert's research group began studying dynamically stable legged locomotion at Carnegie Mellon in the early 1980s. A 1983 technical report described a one-legged machine that controlled hopping height, forward velocity, and body attitude as separate but coordinated tasks. The report treated balance as an active control problem rather than relying on a machine to remain statically stable at every moment.^[3] According to a 2008 paper by Raibert and colleagues, the Leg Laboratory's machines were developed at Carnegie Mellon from 1981 to 1986 and at MIT from 1987 to 1995. They included one-legged, two-legged, and four-legged machines that hopped, ran with trotting, pacing, and bounding gaits, and climbed simple stairways.^[4]

Boston Dynamics was established in 1992 as an MIT spin-off. Its later corporate history describes a continuous goal of building machines that can balance and move through human-built and natural environments rather than remaining fixed behind safety barriers or limited to flat floors.^[1][2]

BigDog and field robotics

BigDog, begun in 2004 according to the company's history, was the first Boston Dynamics quadruped designed to leave the laboratory for rough outdoor terrain.^[1][5] A peer-reviewed 2008 paper describes a self-contained, hydraulically actuated robot powered by a 15-horsepower two-stroke engine. BigDog weighed about 109 kilograms and used roughly 50 sensors, including inertial and joint sensors, while a human operator provided high-level speed and steering commands.^[4]

The same paper reported a normal trotting speed of about 1.6 metres per second, a brief laboratory bounding speed above 3.1 metres per second, a 10-kilometre continuous hike lasting 2.5 hours, and field tests in mud, snow, rubble, loose scree, and on slopes. It recorded a 154-kilogram flat-terrain test load but described 50 kilograms as a more typical load.^[4] These figures belong to the research platform and should not be treated as specifications for Spot or any current Boston Dynamics product.

BigDog also illustrates an important feature of Boston Dynamics' engineering approach. Its onboard computer regulated joint positions and forces, coordinated the gait, and estimated body motion, while the operator did not command each footstep. The system combined control, proprioceptive sensing, stereo vision, and LiDAR experiments. Its rough-terrain work provided a technical bridge between the Leg Laboratory machines and later autonomous quadrupeds.^[4]

Atlas and the DARPA Robotics Challenge

DARPA publicly unveiled the original Atlas in July 2013 for the DARPA Robotics Challenge, a program intended to advance robots that could assist in disaster-response environments. DARPA described the first version as a 6-foot-2-inch (1.88-metre), 330-pound (150-kilogram) humanoid with 28 hydraulically actuated joints, an on-board real-time control computer, and a Carnegie Robotics sensor head with lidar and stereo sensors. A tether connected it to off-board power and to a computer through which an operator issued commands.^[6][38] Seven teams received Atlas platforms after a simulation-based qualifying round and developed the software needed to control them.^[6]

The 2013 machine was primarily a research platform rather than an autonomous commercial worker. DARPA described it as essentially a physical shell for the software that the competing teams would write, and a human operator issued its commands.^[6][38] For the 2015 finals, which required robots to work without power cords or wired communication tethers, DARPA said the upgraded Atlas was 75 percent new, with only the lower legs and feet carried over. It gained an onboard 3.7-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery and a new variable-pressure pump.^[36]

Boston Dynamics continued hydraulic Atlas research after the challenge, demonstrating whole-body control, dynamic locomotion, and manipulation in laboratory settings. In April 2024 it retired the hydraulic generation and introduced a fully electric design intended for eventual commercial use.^[22] The electric Atlas is a different machine from the 2013 DARPA platform, despite sharing the name.

Corporate ownership

Google confirmed that it had acquired Boston Dynamics in December 2013. The financial terms were not disclosed.^[7] In June 2017, a SoftBank Group subsidiary signed an agreement to acquire Boston Dynamics from Alphabet. The announcement was an agreement subject to closing conditions, not the date on which ownership changed.^[8] A later SoftBank filing states that the acquisition closed in February 2018.^[9]

In December 2020, SoftBank agreed on the main terms of a sale of control of Boston Dynamics to Hyundai Motor Group and Euisun Chung, the chairman of Hyundai Motor Group. SoftBank said Hyundai Motor Group and Chung would collectively hold about 80 percent after closing, with a SoftBank subsidiary retaining about 20 percent.^[9] The deal closed on June 21, 2021, after regulatory approvals, and valued Boston Dynamics at $1.1 billion. After closing, the Group held 80 percent and a SoftBank affiliate held the remaining 20 percent.^[10]

That 80/20 split did not remain static. By July 2026, Yonhap News Agency reported that the Hyundai-side holding had increased to 90.35 percent and SoftBank's remaining stake had fallen to 9.65 percent. On June 19, 2026, Reuters relayed a Maeil Business Newspaper report that Hyundai would buy SoftBank's remaining 9.65 percent for $325 million after SoftBank said it wanted to exercise a put option agreed in the 2021 sale; Hyundai and SoftBank did not immediately respond to Reuters.^[11] On July 16, 2026, Hyundai Motor Group said that, following SoftBank's notice that it was exercising its put option, the Group's shareholders were pursuing the acquisition of SoftBank's entire stake under the parties' existing agreements, subject to internal governance and approval processes. The statement did not give a price.^[40] Yonhap's industry sources said the purchase was also expected to pave the way for a Boston Dynamics initial public offering in the United States.^[12] In September 2026 the trade publication Manufacturing Dive described Boston Dynamics as having become a wholly owned Hyundai subsidiary in July.^[51]

Hyundai also moved to separate the research institute launched alongside Boston Dynamics in 2022. Hyundai Motor Company's interim financial statements for the first half of 2026 say the group decided during that period to sell its entire interest in Robotics and AI Institute LLC (formerly Boston Dynamics AI Institute, LLC), a 47.5 percent equity-method holding, and reclassified it as held for sale; the statements do not name a buyer.^[54] On September 18, 2026, The Robot Report, citing multiple sources, reported that SoftBank had agreed to acquire the Robotics and AI Institute from Hyundai Motor Group and that the deal was under review by CFIUS. Financial terms were not known; the institute told the publication it had nothing to share, and SoftBank had not responded at press time.^[53]

Leadership and expansion

Raibert was chief executive from the company's founding until late 2019, when he became chairman and Robert Playter took over as chief executive; the change was made public in January 2020. Playter had joined Raibert's MIT lab as a doctoral student and then the company in its early years.^[39] Spot was commercialized shortly after he took charge, and he had also served as vice president of engineering and chief operating officer. In February 2026 Playter announced in an internal memo that he was stepping down after 30 years at the company, and chief financial officer Amanda McMaster took the top job on an interim basis while the company looked for a replacement.^[13] Company announcements in June and September 2026 still identified McMaster as interim CEO.^[14][47]

In June 2026, Boston Dynamics announced plans to develop a 323,000-square-foot robotics and artificial intelligence center at 1601 Trapelo Road in Waltham. The company said it planned to invest $100 million, consolidate work then spread across three local sites, and add manufacturing, research, training, and operations capacity. Massachusetts approved a $25 million Economic Development Incentive Program award tied to the project.^[14][15] The announcement described a planned expansion, not a completed move; Boston Dynamics said it expected to move into the building in phases beginning in mid-2027 and anticipated creating 1,250 new jobs by 2033. The state's award summary gives the same job figure with a 2030 date.^[14][15]

Products and software

Boston Dynamics distinguishes commercially available systems from research prototypes and scheduled deployments. Spot and Stretch have been sold to customers. In January 2026, Boston Dynamics unveiled a product version of Atlas, said manufacturing would begin immediately, and scheduled initial deployments for selected partners; as of September 2026 the company's own boilerplate still described Atlas as its electric humanoid platform "currently in development". Orbit is software rather than a robot.^{[16][19][23][25][50]}

Spot

Spot is an electrically powered quadruped intended to carry sensors or a manipulator through stairs, uneven floors, and other environments that are difficult for many wheeled robots. Boston Dynamics first made it available through an early-adopter lease program. When commercial sales opened in June 2020, the company said more than 150 robots had taken part in that program at businesses and research facilities.^[16]

Published specifications for the current base robot list a mass of 33.8 kilograms with battery, a maximum speed of 1.6 metres per second, IP54 ingress protection, and an average battery runtime of 90 minutes. The product page lists a 14-kilogram maximum payload-mounting weight and notes that runtime varies with payload and environmental conditions.^[17] Accessories include cameras, acoustic and thermal sensors, communications equipment, lidar, and the Spot Arm. The robot can be driven manually or assigned autonomous missions; docks support charging and repeated scheduled work.^[17]

The base platform and its payloads serve different functions, so descriptions should identify the configuration being discussed. For example, a Spot carrying an inspection camera is not equivalent to one fitted with a manipulator, gas sensor, or laser scanner. Boston Dynamics reported in 2026 that more than 1,500 Spot robots were in customer hands, but this is a company-reported deployment figure rather than an independently audited sales total.^[17]

Customer accounts document practical uses alongside the company's demonstrations. Ontario Power Generation reported using Spot at the Pickering and Darlington nuclear stations for remote inspection of difficult or potentially hazardous areas. Its 2021 account described remote operation, a 360-degree camera, an electronic dosimeter, and tests on stairs and walkways.^[18] These examples show industrial use, but they do not establish that every Spot deployment is fully autonomous or uses the same payloads.

Stretch

Stretch is a mobile case-handling robot designed for warehouses and distribution centers. It combines a wheeled base, a perception system, a robotic arm, and a vacuum gripper. Boston Dynamics opened commercial purchasing in March 2022 after customer pilots. At launch, the company described unloading floor-loaded trailers and containers as the first application and specified cases weighing up to 50 pounds (23 kilograms).^[19]

The company's 2025 brochure lists an unloading rate of 600 to 800 cases per hour and a battery life of up to 16 hours. Actual rates depend on the trailer, package mix, workflow, and surrounding equipment.^[20] Stretch detects boxes with its vision system and does not require pre-programming of SKU numbers or case information.^[19][20]

DHL Group and Boston Dynamics signed a memorandum of understanding in May 2025 that could lead to more than 1,000 additional robots across DHL divisions. The announcement said deployed Stretch systems had reached up to 700 cases per hour and that the companies were investigating uses beyond unloading, including case picking.^[21] The memorandum describes a planned expansion. It should not be reported as proof that all 1,000 additional units had already been ordered, delivered, or placed in service.

Electric Atlas

Boston Dynamics introduced the electric Atlas in April 2024 after retiring the hydraulic research version. The company said the new platform would be developed with a small group of customers, starting with Hyundai, and framed it as the beginning of a commercial program rather than a finished mass deployment.^[22]

At CES in January 2026, Boston Dynamics unveiled a product version and said manufacturing would begin immediately. All 2026 Atlas deployments were already committed, with fleets scheduled for Hyundai's Robotics Metaplant Application Center (RMAC) and Google DeepMind, and additional customers planned for early 2027. The company also said Hyundai Mobis would supply Atlas's actuators.^[23] Hyundai Motor Group said Atlas would be deployed at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Savannah, Georgia, by 2028, starting with processes such as parts sequencing, with component assembly to follow by 2030.^[41] Those statements establish a manufacturing and deployment schedule, not proof that robots had entered routine production work.

The December 2025 Atlas specification sheet lists the product at 1.9 metres tall and 90 kilograms, with 56 degrees of freedom and a 2.3-metre reach. It lists a 50-kilogram instantaneous lift, a 30-kilogram sustained lift, and a 20-kilogram one-handed capacity. The sheet also specifies IP67 ingress protection, an operating range from -20 to 40 degrees Celsius, a four-hour nominal battery life, two hours under heavy lifting, and a three-minute autonomous battery swap.^[24] These are manufacturer specifications for the electric product version, not measurements for the older hydraulic Atlas or guarantees of performance in every task.

Atlas can be operated autonomously, by virtual-reality teleoperation, or through a tablet interface, according to the same sheet. Its stated safety features include human detection and fenceless guarding.^[24] Detailed safety certification, task validation, and site integration remain application-specific questions for customers and regulators.

A May 2026 engineering blog post described design choices in the product robot: the body uses only two types of rotary actuators, both legs and both arms are identical, joints have infinite rotation because no cables cross them, the feet are symmetrical front to back, and arms, legs, hands, and head are field-replaceable units that can be swapped within a few minutes.^[43] In July 2026 Atlas delivered the match ball to the referee at halftime of a FIFA World Cup round-of-16 match between Brazil and Norway at New York New Jersey Stadium, a public demonstration Hyundai Motor Group later cited alongside Atlas lifting and carrying a 23-kilogram compact refrigerator.^[46][40]

Orbit and the Kinema acquisition

Orbit is Boston Dynamics' software platform for assigning missions, monitoring robot fleets, reviewing inspection data, and connecting robot workflows to other operational systems. The product page describes cloud, on-premises, and virtual-machine deployment options, as well as interfaces for Spot, Stretch, and eventually Atlas.^[25] Orbit is part of the company's move from selling mobile hardware alone toward supplying software, data, and fleet-management tools.

In 2019, Boston Dynamics acquired Kinema Systems, whose Pick software used computer vision and deep learning to guide industrial arms in pallet handling. Boston Dynamics said the acquisition would strengthen its perception and logistics work.^[26] Pick appeared in the company's product materials at the time, but it is not listed alongside Spot, Stretch, and Atlas in the company's current robot portfolio. It is more accurate to treat Kinema and Pick as part of the development history of its logistics and perception capabilities than to list Pick as a current mobile robot.

Legacy research platforms

Boston Dynamics has built many systems that were experiments, government research platforms, or precursors to later products. They are not all commercial offerings.^[5]

The company history page connects Handle directly to Stretch and describes Spot Classic as a predecessor of the commercial Spot. It also identifies the hydraulic Atlas as a source of work on whole-body control and manipulation.^[5] Such continuity does not mean that components, specifications, or software transfer unchanged between generations.

Control, perception, and learning

Dynamic balance

Boston Dynamics' early technical identity came from dynamic control. In Raibert's legged machines, balance was maintained through repeated sensing and correction during motion. The controller regulated vertical support, body attitude, and foot placement rather than planning only statically stable poses.^[3][4] BigDog extended that approach to a field robot by coordinating joint forces, gait timing, body posture, and contact with uneven ground.^[4]

This work helped establish a recurring design pattern: mechanical structure, sensing, state estimation, and control software are developed together. A video of a robot recovering from a disturbance can illustrate that integration, but it does not alone quantify reliability, autonomy, endurance, or safety. Those properties require task-specific testing.

Perception and autonomy

Current systems combine onboard sensors with external payloads and software. Spot can navigate recorded routes, avoid obstacles, dock, and collect visual, acoustic, thermal, or geometric data depending on its equipment.^[17] Stretch uses perception to identify cases and determine grasp locations during unloading.^[19] Orbit adds scheduling, dashboards, alerts, and integration with systems of record.^[25]

The word "autonomous" therefore covers several levels of behavior. A robot may execute a mapped inspection route without continuous steering while still requiring people to define the route, review results, maintain the site model, respond to exceptions, and manage safety. Some hazardous-response uses remain deliberately teleoperated.

Reinforcement learning and foundation models

Boston Dynamics has added machine learning to a control stack that also includes model-based methods and conventional robotics software. A 2025 ICRA paper from the Robotics and AI Institute described what it called the first public demonstration of an end-to-end reinforcement learning policy deployed on Spot hardware, using the Spot RL Researcher Development Kit. The resulting policies were capable of more than 5.2 metres per second.^[29] That result belongs to a research controller and should not replace Spot's published commercial maximum speed of 1.6 metres per second.^[17]

Boston Dynamics and the Robotics and AI Institute announced a shared reinforcement-learning pipeline for electric Atlas in February 2025. The stated research topics included simulation-to-real transfer, locomotion combined with manipulation, and tasks involving full-body contact.^[28] A separate 2024 agreement with Toyota Research Institute paired Atlas with research on large behavior models, teleoperated data collection, dexterous manipulation, and safety evaluation.^[27]

In January 2026, Boston Dynamics and Google DeepMind announced joint research intended to integrate Gemini Robotics foundation models with Atlas. The announcement said the work would begin during 2026, so it should be described as a partnership and research plan rather than a completed Atlas capability.^[30] A more concrete integration appeared in April 2026, when Boston Dynamics said its AIVI-Learning inspection tool for Orbit used Gemini Robotics-ER 1.6 to help analyze industrial inspection images collected by Spot.^[31] This software integration is distinct from the planned Atlas research. Spot 5.2, released in September 2026, reorganized Orbit data around facility assets, added video inspections and "Site Scans" that use the Gemini-powered AIVI-Learning model to look for transient risks such as spills, and opened APIs that the company said lay the foundation for an MCP layer letting AI agents dispatch Spot.^[48][49]

Boston Dynamics has also partnered with outside AI developers. In March 2026 it announced a partnership with FieldAI that pairs Spot with FieldAI's Field Foundation Models for autonomous inspection, mapping, and progress tracking on construction sites.^[42] In September 2026 Dynamic Creatures, a company founded by former Boston Dynamics, Google, and Robotics and AI Institute leaders, emerged from stealth as Boston Dynamics' official entertainment and hospitality partner.^[47]

For Atlas, the May 2026 blog post said the robot learned to lift a mini-fridge through reinforcement learning in simulation across many variations of the object, with perception coming implicitly from body proprioception rather than only from cameras. The authors wrote that one goal was to train and deploy new behaviors "in as little as a day".^[43]

Commercialization and deployment

Boston Dynamics spent much of its history producing research platforms in small numbers. Spot's 2020 sales launch and Stretch's 2022 commercial release changed that model.^[16][19] In January 2026, the company said its product-development process drew on experience with more than 2,000 Spot and Stretch robots deployed into customer operations during the preceding five years.^[35] Because Boston Dynamics supplied that total, it should be attributed to the company rather than presented as an independently audited installed base.

Deployment is not a single technical milestone. A commercial robot must be integrated with a site's wireless network, safety procedures, maps, payloads, data systems, maintenance schedule, and staff workflows. Spot's open payload interfaces and software development kit support many configurations, while Stretch is designed around a narrower warehouse task. Atlas is being introduced through selected industrial partners rather than general online sale.^[16][19][23]

The June 2026 Waltham expansion plan reflects the growing manufacturing role in the business. Boston Dynamics said the new facility would consolidate research, manufacturing, training, and operations for Atlas, Spot, and Stretch.^[14] As of September 2026 the Waltham project remained prospective.

Robotics Metaplant Application Center

Hyundai's Robotics Metaplant Application Center (RMAC) was named at CES in January 2026 as the destination for the first Atlas fleets.^[23] According to Manufacturing Dive, pilot operations began there in June 2026 before moving to full operations.^[51] On September 21, 2026, Boston Dynamics announced the launch of RMAC inside the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA) campus outside Savannah, Georgia, as a testbed and training center for integrating Atlas into Hyundai Motor Group's vehicle manufacturing.^[50]

The company said Atlas robots were being trained in real-world settings, such as preparing the logistics and sequencing of automotive parts before placing them in order for assembly, with applications extending to component assembly by 2030. The first phase was operational; in 2027 the center is to move into a new building at HMGMA about ten times its current size. Boston Dynamics also said it planned to begin exploring Atlas use cases in other sectors in 2027 and was in discussions with Spot and Stretch customers in manufacturing, aerospace, semiconductors, logistics, food and beverage, and life sciences to scale data collection for Atlas training.^[50]

The same announcement said Hyundai Motor Group planned to expand Atlas across its global network, "beginning with 25,000 units at Hyundai Motor and Kia's global plants over the next few years", and to establish a new U.S. facility able to produce 30,000 robots a year.^[50] The 25,000 figure was not new in September, and Korean coverage of the opening described it as a previously announced plan.^[52] Hyundai Motor Group had presented it at a JPMorgan investor relations session in Boston in May 2026.^[44][45] The Korea Herald reported that the group planned to deploy more than 25,000 Atlas robots at Hyundai and Kia plants before expanding to external sales, about 83 percent of the 30,000 robots a year it aims to produce by 2028, and that Kia chief executive Song Ho-sung said Atlas would first go to HMGMA in 2028 and to Kia's Georgia plant in 2029.^[44][45] These are company plans for robot units, not deployed robots.

Responsible-use policies and public debate

Boston Dynamics publishes ethical principles stating that it will not weaponize its robots or support autonomous targeting systems. The principles also say the company will not authorize uses that violate privacy or civil-rights law and that government work must remain consistent with those limits.^[32] In 2022, Boston Dynamics and five other mobile-robot companies published an open letter pledging not to weaponize their general-purpose robots or support customers in doing so. The letter also called for policy and technical measures to reduce misuse.^[33]

These are company policies, not a legal guarantee that every third party will comply. Boston Dynamics' terms and customer screening can restrict authorized use, but public agencies and other operators make deployment decisions that may raise separate questions about surveillance, proportionality, public notice, and accountability.

New York City's use of Spot under the name Digidog illustrates that distinction. A 2024 report by the New York City Department of Investigation said the New York Police Department had leased a Spot Explorer for a 2021 pilot and purchased two Spot Enterprise units in 2023. The report counted five New York City deployments through its review period.^[34] It also concluded that the police department's existing surveillance policy did not provide enough Digidog-specific information about capabilities and use, and recommended clearer disclosure under the city's Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act.^[34]

The report described Digidog as a remotely operated robot piloted by an operator with a tablet, and it examined cameras, thermal imaging, the Spot Arm, mapping equipment, and hazardous-material sensing as configuration-dependent capabilities. One of the five deployments was by the New York City Fire Department after the April 2023 Ann Street parking garage collapse.^[34] The episode shows why a company article should separate the manufacturer, the base robot, optional payloads, and the policies of a deploying agency.

See also

• Digital twin
• Robotics and AI Institute
• Atlas Electric (Boston Dynamics)
• Physical AI

References

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