Dogfight on the DMZ?

The dogs of war?
So, when will we witness hundreds of armed and sensor-laden robot dogs scampering along Korea’s DMZ keeping watch on North Korea, or, for that matter, any of the other hundreds of DMZs around the world? Maybe Nagorno Karabak, maybe along the Rio Grande, maybe at voting sites at a future U.S. presidential election. So many opportunities, so few robot dogs. Think, Metalhead from Black Mirror.

Bloomberg reports that Boston Dynamics sold about 400 of its Spot robot dogs (on sale for about six months) “bringing in at least $30 million in revenue,” which is about $75k per mechanical canine.  Probably too little to appease Softbank (its owner since 2017) which reportedly lays out approximately $150 million annually for Boston Dynamics, which recently moved into a larger, more expensive building and now has upwards of 300 staff. Ka-ching, ka-ching. Softbank, however, bought the company for $165 million from Google in 2017, and now has sold it to Hyundai Motor Group for $1.1 billion, a brief three years later. That’s a nice profit margin. Google bought Boston Dynamics for an undisclosed sum in 2013; it was one of eight robotics companies Google scooped up over a period of six months for Googler Andy Rubin to honcho, but Rubin left Google in 2014, after which disenchantment quickly set in with all things robotics at Google (now Alphabet)

Founded by former-CEO Marc Raibert in 1992, Boston Dynamics has a reputation as a protected paradise for R&D engineers living off DARPA and DoD contracts. Even at the height of the Great Recession (2008-2011), the company lived well. The work of the isolated, quiet company has always been nonpareil; the YouTube videos of its fantastic animal- and human-like machines (most going viral) have more viewings than all other robot videos combined. Such a successful culture totally fixated on producing eerily lifelike, amazing robotics can be many times a difficult atmosphere in which to breed a sense of commercialism.

Late last year, the company changed its CEO: Raibert out, and in as CEO came Rob Playter, “a former collegiate gymnast who wrote his PhD thesis on techniques for teaching robots to do somersaults” (think, Atlas). In an October interview, he said SoftBank was looking for profits. “While they want us to be a disciplined and commercial company, the actual direction of the company they are leaving to us.”

That, of course, was mistake number one. And truth be told, some R&D shops producing uncanny tech maybe should be left alone to do their thing, something like Lockheed’s Skunk Works.

“Now, they’re one company among many—ANYbotics and Unitree are just two examples of other quadrupeds that are being successfully commercialized.”

A country and new owner agog with robots
Now Boston Dynamics finds itself sucked into the Hyundai chaebol, which, regardless of its official partitions and ticker symbols, is still a singular, many-tentacled powerhouse of Korean industry, made purposefully—and successfully—opaque to thwart prying eyes.

It’s a union that may prove beneficial to Boston Dynamics, both as a skunk works and as a commercial success. Unlike its previous owners, Hyundai (Softbank still retains a 20 percent interest) has a world of robotics opportunities and unlimited resources ready to assist.

Plus, Korea is putting on a power move in robotics, which will offer more than fertile ground enough for Boston Dynamics to thrive.

With an eye towards becoming the world’s fourth-largest industrial robot player by 2023, according to the Korea Times, Korea is moving decisively to power up its robotics industry. It’s also setting goals to foster 20 mainline robotics companies, and to more than double industrial robot production from 300,000 to 700,000, and also to expand market size from the current $4.9 billion to $12.9 billion.  

“Korea accounts for about 10 percent of the total supply, which makes it fifth in the world,” said Moon Jae-In, president of Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement (KIRIA).

Korea’s Third Robot Basic Plan will foster both the industrial and service robot sectors, as well as establish an improved ecosystem for local robotics companies.

In 2018, Korea rolled out Intelligent Robot Industry Development Acceleration Strategy. Back then, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) ponied up $467 million through 2020 to fund the Joint Robot Industry Development Initiative, which covers lots of domestic robot issues, but specifically tabs robots as “one of the new export industries”.

See related:

Back to the Future
Just in Time, Korea Leans on Technology for Help
The Robot Act of 2008 gets revamped, redirected and refinanced.

Korea’s New Robot Plan
The new five-year, Third Robot Basic Plan, according to Korea Times, will see: “The government supporting localization of key robot parts and software, demonstrating robot technology at the customers’ end, and a combination of 5G, AI and robots. To this end, the government said it will develop three core parts, such as an intelligent controller, and four software programs, such as smart gripping.

“With the advent of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) and fifth-generation (5G) network, the robot industry has become a key subject of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” Moon told The Korea Times.