WhereIsAtlas · Robotics
Boston Dynamics
The robotics pioneer behind BigDog, Spot and Atlas — from MIT spin-off to a Hyundai-owned leader
Transformed — Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992 by Marc Raibert, spinning out of MIT, and became famous for its agile robots — the BigDog pack robot, the Spot quadruped and the Atlas humanoid. It changed owners several times and was acquired by Hyundai in 2021. Its humanoid Atlas, retired in 2024, was reborn as a fully electric successive model.
Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992 by Marc Raibert, who had been developing robots at MIT that moved like animals — using the dynamics of balance and movement to create machines that could run, leap and climb. The company's robots were among the first to move with lifelike agility.
Its early fame came from BigDog, a quadruped pack robot funded by the military, followed by the Spot quadruped and the humanoid Atlas. Atlas, in particular, became a global sensation for its parkour, dancing and backflips — viral videos that made Boston Dynamics a household name in robotics.
The company changed hands several times: Google acquired it in 2013, sold it to SoftBank in 2017, and in 2021 it was acquired by the Korean automaker Hyundai. Its humanoid Atlas was retired in 2024 and replaced by a new fully-electric Atlas. Boston Dynamics remains a leading name in the humanoid-robot lineage that traces back to pioneering machines like WABOT-1.
Quick facts
- Founded
- 1992, by Marc Raibert (from MIT)
- Founding robots
- BigDog, Spot, Atlas
- Signature
- Agile robots that run, leap, do backflips
- Ownership
- Google (2013) → SoftBank (2017) → Hyundai (2021)
- Atlas
- Retired 2024, reborn as fully-electric
- Lineage
- A modern descendent of the humanoid pioneer WABOT-1
Sources
- Boston Dynamics - Wikipedia — Wikipedia (2026-09-05)
- Introducing Electric Atlas — Boston Dynamics (2026-09-05)