Boston Dynamics' SpotMini

Boston Dynamics has done it again: in a YouTube video posted today, one of the coolest robotics companies in the known universe is introducing a fun-sizeified version of their Spot quadruped called SpotMini. SpotMini is all electric, quiet, comes with a very capable googley-eyed face-arm, and is terrible at bringing people beer. We want one anyway.

Lastly, and this is worth more than a bullet point, it’s very interesting that Boston Dynamics has all of these home environments tagged with fiducials set up to test robots in. Previously, we’ve seen stairs and treadmills and debris piles and the occasional snake pit, but nothing to suggest that BD was ever even thinking about one of their robots doing anything in a house. And now suddenly we’re looking at a kitchen full of dishes, a living room, a dining room, furniture, carpeting, the works.

A few months ago, leaked minutes of a meeting at Google suggested that its robotics group “had been trying to work with Boston Dynamics to create a low-cost electric quadruped robot,” and that Google was insisting on products that “generate real revenue.” I don’t know exactly what the development cycle on SpotMini was, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we’re looking at an attempt to make a (relatively) affordable robot that can do practical things for people who aren’t in the military.

I don’t want to read too much into all this, but considering all the rumors that have been going around about Boston Dynamics and Google, I’m just glad that BD is still doing what they’re best at: making amazing robots in secret, shooting cool videos, posting them on YouTube with zero warning, and then sitting back and watching the views roll in.