Google Just Bought A Company That Makes Absolutely Insane Robots

Google just bought Boston Dynamics, an engineering company that has designed mobile research robots for the Pentagon, reports The New York Times.

Boston Dynamics is based in Waltham, Mass.

The company creates "machines that walk with an uncanny sense of balance and even - cheetahlike - run faster than the fastest humans," says The Times.

Google is not saying how much money it paid for Boston Dynamics, and said that it does not plan to release financial information on any of the other eight robotics companies it has purchased in the last 6 months.

The Times reports,

A video of one of [Boston Dynamics'] robots named BigDog shows a noisy, gas-powered, four-legged, walking robot that climbs hills, travels through snow, skitters precariously on ice and even manages to stay upright in response to a well-placed human kick. BigDog development started in 2003 in partnership with the British robot maker Foster-Miller, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Harvard.

The video has been viewed more than 15 million times since it was posted on YouTube in 2008.