Google DeepMind and Boston Dynamics are partnering to trial Gemini-powered robotics in Hyundai automotive factories. The project will involve the latter company’s humanoid, Atlas, and its dog-like Spot robots, with Google DeepMind’s Gemini Robotics model used to inform their decision-making and functions.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with the Google DeepMind team,” said Alberto Rodriguez, director of robot behavior for Atlas at Boston Dynamics. “We are building the world’s most capable humanoid, and we knew we needed a partner that could help us establish new kinds of visual-language-action models for these complex robots. Nobody in the world is better suited than DeepMind to build reliable, scalable models that can be deployed safely and efficiently across a wide variety of tasks and industries.”
Although Boston Dynamics has spent years demonstrating advances in robotics, environmental perception, and versatility in navigation and locomotion, it only announced the development of a commercial humanoid robot in 2024. Integrating Google’s Gemini Robotics model should give the robots greater ability to perceive and act within their physical environments and to receive inputs from various external sensors, helping them complete specific tasks.
Boston Dynamics is beginning its trial at a Hyundai facility, as Hyundai has been its parent company since 2021. It was previously a Google X project before being sold to SoftBank and, most recently, to Hyundai. It clearly hopes to leverage these cutting-edge robotics to augment its automated production facilities. Automotive production lines are already heavily automated and often designed around the robotics that assemble vehicles. Adding additional robots, such as Atlas and Spot, would likely be easier and safer there than in other facilities with less pre-existing automation.
Even if the robots aren’t entirely successful at the outset, Boston Dynamics claims they’ll learn on the job, improving efficiency and capabilities as the experiment progresses. That data will then be used to refine Google’s robotics AI model, potentially enabling broader and more varied use of these robots in the future.
They are facing stiffer competition, though, as the humanoid robotics industry picks up the pace. There are now over a dozen US-based humanoid robot companies, and many more around the world, rushing to be the first to create something truly viable for home and commercial use.