Andy Rubin... Google pushing accessible robots on us all? (Google)
From the same company that brought the world one of the most popular search engines and mobile phone Operating Systems, Google recently announced a new project to take the world of robotics by storm, to be headed by the infamous Andy Rubin.
It may not be a coincidence that Google announced its robotics campaign shortly after Amazon announced its Amazon Prime Air drone project last week. Regardless, while Amazon’s project sets out to create flying robots to deliver packages to its customers, Google’s project is instead targeting the manufacturing industry.
With many manufactures, including big companies like China’s Foxconn, looking to robots for manufacturing production assistance, Google’s robotics project is expected to support this increasing demand. The project is expected to produce useful devices to help in mass production manufacturing plants, while decreasing the risk of personal injury to employees. The technology may also aid U.S.-based manufacturing plants increase production to keep up with the demand for U.S.-made products. Details about the new robotics project are being kept under wraps, but Google did officially announce this week that it recruited the services of seven robotics companies.
Over the past year Google has acquired Schaft, Redwood Robotics, Industrial Perception, Meka Robotics, Autofuss, Holomni and Bot & Dolly to provide capabilities to carry out its new robotics project. The vision is carried out by none other than Android developer Andy Rubin.
While most know Rubin as the man behind one of the most popular smartphone OS’s in the world, the design genius is also a hobbyist-turn-professional in robot engineering. Rubin has a professional background in robotics engineering with Carl Zeiss and Apple and hopes to eventually turn the robotics sector at Google into a provider of consumer-friendly products, such as a windshield wiper that detects rain and functions automatically. Rubin told the New York Times that he couldn’t be happier to lead Google’s robotics division and has turned a hobby into a career yet again.
While Google isn’t revealing too many details about its robotics project, it is estimated that the first manufacturing robots will be released in the new few years. It may be 10 years until Google begins producing robots for consumer use, if it does. The chances of it doing so are what Rubin calls a “moonshot.”
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