Google Buys Boston Dynamics

Google confirmed on Friday that they purchased Boston Dynamics, the robotic company behind such killers as BigDog, ATLAS and Cheetah. Google plans to harness the power of the killing machines to take over the planet and herald a new age of robotic glory.

It is the eighth robotics company that Google has acquired in the last half-year. Executives at the Internet giant are circumspect about what exactly they plan to do with their robot collection. But Boston Dynamics and its animal kingdom-themed machines bring significant cachet to Google’s robotic efforts, which are being led by Andy Rubin, the Google executive who spearheaded the development of Android, the world’s most widely used smartphone software.

The deal is also the clearest indication yet that Google is intent on building a new class of autonomous systems that might do anything from warehouse work to package delivery and even elder care.