Boston Dynamics employees were frustrated by Google's plan for a household robot

Re:Boston Dynamics employees were frustrated by Google's pla... by zaroth on Sunday May 29, 2016 @01:05AM (#11794888)

The article claims BD didn't like Google's plan for a household robot on wheels because BD makes legs. This seems oddly specialized.

The bigger topic (probably not a revelation?) is how loosely integrated the robotic purchases have been, and will this continue?

I wonder how much more tightly those teams will ultimately be integrated. Acquisitions should ultimately be integrated and used to form the best teams for internal projects, you don't get the benefit of scale if they operate like an island...

Sounds more like, 'Google Takes Hands-Off Approach Before Hand-Off'.

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Re:Boston Dynamics employees were frustrated by Google's pla... by keypusher on Sunday May 29, 2016 @05:21AM (#11795642)

The entire BD tech portfolio is about making really good legs, including thing like balance and recovery. So I can understand how they might be a bit miffed when Google wanted them to build something with wheels.

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Re:Boston Dynamics employees were frustrated by Google's pla... by pnathan on Sunday May 29, 2016 @01:45AM (#11795003)

BD is the continuation of 20 years of MIT's research into working legs.

I can see how dropping that might stick in their craw.

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Re:Boston Dynamics employees were frustrated by Google's pla... by xyzzy4 on Sunday May 29, 2016 @03:01AM (#11795252)

I think all of their robots have legs, and it was probably their biggest innovation.

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Re:Boston Dynamics employees were frustrated by Google's pla... by mac01021 on Sunday May 29, 2016 @08:29AM (#11796125)

I get that legs require more sophisticated control software and that those sorts of control policies have get to be perfected.

But aside from that is there any reason that wheels are more appropriate than legs for a household servant robot?

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