The human race’s fascination with robots has been prevalent since the moment we dreamed them into existence.
Many have attempted to imagine what futuristic machines will look and act like, but none seem to have quite the drive and financial backing as Google.
“This is definitely a sign of the maturity of the field, and a sign of the broader interests of industries towards robotics," says Martial Hebert, director of Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, about Google expensive interest in robots. "This is also a sign that robotics is moving towards broader base applications that benefits people.”
Just as with other sectors, the tech giant seems to want a hand in every aspect of the robotics process.
Meka Robotics has been busy building the top half of robots, including human-like heads and torsos. Industrial Perception gives the hardware the gift of 3-D sight using advanced infrared vision. Redwood Robotics specializes in robot arms. Schaft Inc. is responsible for creating agile bipedal legs. And Holomni has tasked itself with building wheels for more basic robots that only require wheels to move.
Google is also interested in military-grade robots, as its purchase of Boston Dynamics showed. Known for creating several all-terrain robots, Boston Dynamics' most famous venture to date has been its robot “dog,” Spot.
Google, like other tech giants, has seen massive potential in drone technology, as well. The company first showed an interest in the high-flying machinery with its purchase of Titan Aerospace (which creates high altitude drones that are also being utilized in Project Loon) as well as its investments in Airwave (which designs components for commercial drones), and Skycatch (which uses drones to collect high-resolution aerial data).
Another interesting acquisition to note is Skybox Imagining, which Google picked up for half a billion dollars last year. It's a start-up with a focus on satellites, but has big dreams regarding big data and “unlocking the human story by approaching daily global activity as the world’s largest data science problem.” The start-up's products focus on analytics platforms, imaging chains, and satellites, which all work together to make data collection from space more reliable and cheaper.
But what is the hardware without the software?
“I think we should always see robotics as a whole, not as a piece," Mr. Hebert says. "This is generally important, in the end, to have a trust-able robotics system, and a trust-able robotics system involves, again, all the parts. From the hardware to the intelligence, I don’t think you can ever completely separate them."
Which is probably why Google has taken the time and effort to invest in some of the most advanced forms of artificial intelligence.
