Google has acquired Boston Dynamics, the engineering firm behind walking humanoid and animal-like robots.
It is the latest robotics acquisition the search engine giant has made in the last six months.
While the price of the acquisition remains undisclosed, the latest purchase forms part of the search major’s plan to boost its own robotics technology in a project led by Andy Rubin, the former head of Android.
Google chief executive Larry Page said: "I am excited about Andy Rubin’s next project. His last big bet, Android, started off as a crazy idea that ended up putting a supercomputer in hundreds of millions of pockets. It is still very early days for this, but I can’t wait to see the progress."
Google’s acquisition also comes in the wake of online shopping major Amazon’s plan to deploy a fleet of drones to deliver products to customers.
Boston Dynamics developed BigDog, in addition to Cheetah, which is an animal-like robot aimed at running at high speeds, which was then followed up by an all-round version WildCat.
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