Google Robot Pulled out of Military Service, Aims to Develop Consumer Model

Schaft was working on developing some truly impressive robotics hardware for the military as part of the $2 million Robotics Challenge. This was an incentive setup by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to seek the most advanced robotics in the world. With barely half of the three year campaign underway, Google owned Schaft have pulled out of the running.

Schaft were already competing prior to Google buying them out, as the company was formed exclusively to work on this project. However, Schaft was accepting money from the Defense Department, which obviously meant that Google was then a defence contractor, not exactly their angle. Schaft announced earlier this year that it was renouncing DARPA funding now that it had Google writing the cheques, but have now elected to withdraw from the finals completely.

Now it looks like the company and Google, who also own Boston Dynamics, will be pushing for commercially viable products, so expect Google Android to take a whole new and somewhat literally meaning in the next couple of years.

Thank you The Verge for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of YouTube.