Vice President of Policy & Government Relations at Boston Dynamics. Personal views only. Also find me at @dronelaws
Joined April 2021
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It's great to see momentum building in Washington DC for policies that will support the success of the US robotics industry. I was honored to have my views quoted in this @politico article on recent developments and future aspirations.
Brendan Schulman retweeted
#China deploys over 350,000 robots a year and holds more than half the world’s installations. The US? Roughly 36,000. @Ylli_Bajraktari , @dronelaws (@BostonDynamics ), and Heather Carroll (@PathRobotics ) discuss closing the gap — and why a looming US skilled-labor shortage makes robotics not optional, but necessary.
Brendan Schulman retweeted
They say robotics moved west, but Boston didn’t get the memo. 🦞
The Massachusetts ecosystem is one of the world's leading hubs for robotics, combining top research, companies, and deep-tech investment.
At its core are Massachusetts Institute of Technology (@MIT) and @Harvard which produce world-class researchers, engineers, and robotics startups.
Many of today's leading robotics companies trace their roots back to these universities.
The region is also home to companies like @BostonDynamics, whose work has inspired advances in humanoid and mobile robots.
Around these companies, a dense network of suppliers, experienced engineers, entrepreneurs, and investors has developed, making it easier for new startups to build and scale.
Massachusetts also has one of the strongest deep-tech funding ecosystems in the world, with venture capital firms that understand robotics, AI, and hardware.
The Massachusetts robotics ecosystem is further strengthened by leading research organizations such as @ToyotaResearch Institute and @rai_inst, which are advancing AI, dexterous manipulation, and next-generation robotics while attracting world-class researchers and engineers.
Not to mention initiatives like @MassRobotics which is home to so many great robotics companies.
In simple terms:
→ You need world-class robotics talent → recruit from MIT and Harvard.
→ You want experienced robotics engineers → hire people who have built robots at top companies.
→ You need funding → access investors with decades of experience backing deep-tech startups.
In the comments I'll post the companies from the ecosystem.
‼️ Note that Massachusetts has more than 500 robotics companies, research labs, and innovation hubs, so this is a curated selection of the notable product companies, not an exhaustive census!
P.S. I'm constantly working on improving these maps, so if your company is missing - no bad blood - I'll try to include it in the next edition.
P.S.2 I have still open slots for my January/February 2027 RoboTour in Boston / Cambridge, if you want to create content together and show the world what are you cooking, dm! :)
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♻️ Join the weekly robotics newsletter, and never miss any news → ziegler.substack.com
Brendan Schulman retweeted
Having thousands of Spots in the world is our unfair HRI advantage as we design how people will task and interact with Atlas
After an ongoing deployment in Barcelona, @CocaColaEP is scaling Spot globally. Spot is already up and running in East Kilbride, Scotland, locating air leaks and automating condition monitoring rounds.
Brendan Schulman retweeted
Introducing Hugo: the first human companion robot.
At Boston Dynamics, I was Chief Strategy Officer, bringing robots into the real world.
My co-founder, Farbod Farshidian, led research at the RAI Institute.
Together, 15+ years teaching robots to run, jump, and work.
So we asked: what if robots could connect with people?
Hugo runs on the first Vision-Language-Expression (VLE) model.
He links what he sees and hears to movement, expression, and gesture.
He notices you, reads the room, and reacts in real time.
And he's only the first.
Dynamic Creatures is @BostonDynamics' official entertainment and hospitality partner.
We're building a cast of characters with film studios, resorts, and theme parks.
dynamiccreatures.com
Brendan Schulman retweeted
Trusted Scale: Security, Standards, & China Challenge
@dronelaws (@BostonDynamics), Michael Robbins (@SIAAmerica), and Dr. Craig Schlenoff (@NIST), moderated by David Lin (SCSP), noted that robots don’t just collect data, they act in the physical world. New standards are needed for humanoids, and the US will likely compete on reliability and support rather than price alone.
Brendan Schulman retweeted
Just wrapped my first day as CEO of Boston Dynamics. This company has pioneered the modern robotics industry and fascinated people all over the world. Super excited to be joining at a pivotal moment for Physical AI, when there's a massive opportunity to deliver real-world impact.
Brendan Schulman retweeted
We are proud to welcome @RohitPrasadAI as our new Chief Executive Officer. He brings decades of experience turning breakthrough AI technologies into category-defining products and will help to accelerate the integration of AI and robotics and to expand real-world Physical AI applications across industries.
bosdyn.co/3U6Zl4Z
Brendan Schulman retweeted
Every once in a while, I see people on Twitter say BD has fallen behind and won’t catch up in the “new age of robotics.”
Turns out training an RL policy is cheap, and VLAs are everywhere. Hardware and dynamics/controls expertise is the moat and oh boy, does BD win there.
Today we give Atlas dexterous hands, with the strength to take on real work, and the simplicity for mass manufacturing. Like the body, the hands are designed with high fidelity simulation in mind, to enable sim-to-real RL. If you give dexterous hands to a robot, make them do dexterous things.
More thoughts here
Blog: bostondynamics.com/blog/robo…
Video: youtube.com/watch?v=4whgw2gL…
Brendan Schulman retweeted
Spent the past five years explaining to government leaders and communities that advanced robots are not the Terminator 🤷🏻♂️
Brendan Schulman retweeted
These new hands are the perfect companion for Atlas. With 13 degrees of freedom, they are directly actuated, built for high fidelity simulation to enable sim-to-real RL, and designed from the ground up for dexterous physical work.
Learn how we built robot hands for modern AI and real work: bosdyn.co/4hR09Uz
Brendan Schulman retweeted
Today we give Atlas dexterous hands, with the strength to take on real work, and the simplicity for mass manufacturing. Like the body, the hands are designed with high fidelity simulation in mind, to enable sim-to-real RL. If you give dexterous hands to a robot, make them do dexterous things.
More thoughts here
Blog: bostondynamics.com/blog/robo…
Video: youtube.com/watch?v=4whgw2gL…
Brendan Schulman retweeted
Why will Boston Dynamics win the humanoid robotics race? We've already commercialized autonomous mobile robots, creating markets with Spot and Stretch. Now we're doing it again with Atlas: learning in real environments, designing for manufacturing at scale, and introducing a new era of physical intelligence.
Brendan Schulman retweeted
Today is my final day as President & CEO of @AUVSI .
I’m proud of what we accomplished, grateful for the team, Board, members & partners who made it possible, and confident AUVSI’s best days are ahead.
A few final reflections: auvsi.org/a-final-note-of-gr…
Brendan Schulman retweeted
Once your data ops are humming, the real bottleneck is diverse, application relevant manipulation data. Data farms are too often focused on volume.
RMAC puts our data flywheel inside one of the richest sources of novel manipulation scenarios in the world. Spend enough time on a factory floor and you realize: manufacturing is practically manipulation-complete.
youtube.com/watch?v=CFS_zU1k…
Brendan Schulman retweeted
From first components to final assemble, Atlas production is taking flight! Want to build the future of robotics? Check out open roles on our ProtoOps team and more on our careers page.
Spent the past five years explaining to government leaders and communities that advanced robots are not the Terminator 🤷🏻♂️
Brendan Schulman retweeted
While American politicians race to impose data center bans and endless layers of AI restrictions -- while also now entertaining the idea of “robot taxes,” -- the Robot Olympics were held in China this week. You may have seen some of the video clips from the games this week on social media and laughed as some of the robots wiped out, or even just failed to work at all.
You shouldn't laugh too hard.
As Yascha Mounk notes in his dispatch from Beijing, “There are few Westerners at the Robot Games; both the engineers and the spectators are mostly Chinese.” He asked two engineering students from Europe “Can the robots at your university do anything like this?” “No,” one of them answered, looking a little deflated. “They’re way ahead of us here.” And the Chinese are way ahead of America, too.
So, while those robots may look silly today as they stumble and fall, the Chinese developers are learning fast from all that experimentation. Some of their humanoid bots are already superior to humans in many competitions.
How do you think this plays out for the United States in the end if we continue to fall behind? We're currently living in a nation where China's DJI already controls 80% of our commercial drone market because our misguided policy choices wouldn't let American entrepreneurs get their innovations off the ground (quite literally). So, the Chinese already have the flying robot market firmly in hand even though America could have been the global leader there.
And now American leaders -- especially state and local officials -- are looking to regulate and tax AI and embodied AI (robotics) into the ground. That'll just make Chinese global dominance of robotics even easier. Because AI and robotics are the most important dual-use technologies of this era, these policy decisions have massive ramifications for our nation's technology base and, by extension, our security.
As they say, progress is a choice. National security is an even bigger one. America is choosing badly.
writing.yaschamounk.com/p/a-…
Brendan Schulman retweeted
American companies are not taking this moment seriously enough. China is an adversary. These are weapons. They get better with deployment data.
A battalion of Booster T2s is getting ready for the World Humanoid Robot Games opening ceremony.
Now in its 2nd year, the Games run Aug 22-26 in Beijing at the "Ice Ribbon" Olympic oval.
It's the biggest yet: ~2,056 robots from 660+ teams across 16 countries, competing in 51 events.
Beyond track-and-field style sprints and jumps, this year adds scenario events like robot tug-of-war, weightlifting and pitch-pot. Part sporting event, part real-world capability benchmark for humanoids.
Brendan Schulman retweeted
Humanoid robots are officially grounded across major US carriers.
American Airlines has joined United, Delta, and Southwest in explicitly banning humanoid and animal-like robots from commercial cabins.
The industry-wide push cites severe lithium-ion fire risks and closes emotional support loopholes—following the viral stunt where Aaron Mehdizadeh flew his Booster K1 ("Stewie") on Southwest.