On Tuesday, robot maker Boston Dynamics announced that it is spinning out its hospitality and entertainment business. Now known as "Dynamic Creatures," the company officially emerged from stealth to launch an effort to design and build interactive character robots for entertainment and hospitality brands.
"At Dynamic Creatures, we're combining advanced robotics, animatronics, artificial intelligence and world-class storytelling to create living characters that don't just move; they interact, learn and build relationships," said Marc Theermann, CEO of Dynamic Creatures.
During the announcement, Theermann was joined by a fluffy purple dog who sauntered into the shot, hinting at a future of wide-eyed, broad-grinned interactive robots. Theermann said the company is creating a new category of mobile characters that move naturally through guest environments, understand the context of an interaction and respond in real time.
"Over the next five years, robots will enter every aspect of our daily lives,” Theermann said. The company, now an entertainment and hospitality partner of Boston Dynamics, is currently looking for theme parks, cruise ships, hotels and even movie studios that may be on the lookout for more interactive guest experiences. Dynamic Creatures said it is working with a large theme park and a retailer to develop adaptable guest-facing character interactions designed to feel personal, attentive and memorable.
The company promotes robots built on Boston Dynamics and other systems, as well as fully original designs created for a specific brand, environment or story. The company hopes to establish a new category between fixed animatronics and task-oriented service robots.
Most hospitality robots are designed to complete functional tasks, such as providing information and telepresence. Traditional stationary animatronics, meanwhile, are generally programmed to perform for a crowd. Dynamic’s mobile characters are designed for face-to-face engagement, understanding the context of an encounter and responding to an individual guest rather than following a predetermined sequence.
Integrated Robotics AI Platform
Dynamic Creatures also unveiled SnowJay, an integrated AI and robotics platform that serves as the operating system for its interactive characters.
SnowJay combines advanced robotics, learning-based control, real-time perception, behavioral programming, character design and costuming. This enables characters to move naturally through demanding commercial environments and adapt their behavior to the people, activity and context around them, according to the company.
“Robust and fluid movement, perception and behavior have to work as one system for a character to engage naturally in the physical world,” said CTO Farbod Farshidian, a former research leader at the Robotics and AI Institute. “SnowJay brings those capabilities together, combining reliable robotic platforms with adaptive intelligence so each character can understand its surroundings and respond in a way that fits the person, place and moment.”
Characters built on existing robotics platforms can be deployed in months, significantly reducing the development timelines associated with traditional custom character builds, the company said. Leasing models for platform-based characters give operators a more flexible path to introducing new experiences without a large upfront capital investment.
Theermann, the company's co-founder, is the former chief strategy officer at Boston Dynamics and a former senior leader at Google. At Boston Dynamics, he helped transform the research lab into a global commercial robotics business and built the go-to-market infrastructure to deploy and service advanced robotic systems at scale.
Boston Dynamics recently announced significant expansion plans to create an advanced robotics and AI center in Massachusetts. The company is investing $100 million in the project which is expected to create 1,250 new jobs by 2033.
Farshidian has been a leading contributor to learning-based control in robotics, with research advancing agile humanoid behavior for Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot, high-speed quadrupedal movement and the transfer of complex skills from simulation to real-world machines.
The company, based in Boston, is currently hiring engineers, scientists and even a chief product officer.
Marc Theermann, CEO of Dynamic Creatures and CTO Farbod Farshidian.Dynamic Creatures
