Alistair Barr, and Scott Martin, USATODAY 12:11 p.m. EST December 4, 2013
Google's Android logo.(Photo: Picasa)
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Google is designing robots for the manufacturing and supply chain sectors and Andy Rubin, the executive behind the company's successful Android mobile operating system, is leading the effort.
The news was first reported by USA Today in August, however, new details emerged about the venture Wednesday.
Google has created a new robotics group under Rubin and bought seven tech companies in the past six months, including Schaft, Industrial Perception, Meka and Redwood Robotics, to help with the push, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Google began as an Internet search business and this is where the company still makes most of its prodigious revenue and profit. However, CEO Larry Page encourages the company to take big bets on new technology that may not become viable for years but could have a huge impact on how people live and do business. These long-term projects have become known as moonshots.
"Like any moonshot, you have to think of time as a factor," Rubin told the New York Times Wednesday. "We need enough runway and a 10-year vision."
Rubin, aged 50, stepped down from the Android business earlier this year without saying what he planned to do next at Google. The executive has been interested in robots for much of his career. Before working at Apple in the 1990s, he was a robotics engineer at German manufacturer Carl Zeiss.
Google's Android logo.(Photo: Picasa)
SHARE 1 CONNECT EMAILMORE
Google is designing robots for the manufacturing and supply chain sectors and Andy Rubin, the executive behind the company's successful Android mobile operating system, is leading the effort.
The news was first reported by USA Today in August, however, new details emerged about the venture Wednesday.
Google has created a new robotics group under Rubin and bought seven tech companies in the past six months, including Schaft, Industrial Perception, Meka and Redwood Robotics, to help with the push, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Google began as an Internet search business and this is where the company still makes most of its prodigious revenue and profit. However, CEO Larry Page encourages the company to take big bets on new technology that may not become viable for years but could have a huge impact on how people live and do business. These long-term projects have become known as moonshots.
"Like any moonshot, you have to think of time as a factor," Rubin told the New York Times Wednesday. "We need enough runway and a 10-year vision."
Rubin, aged 50, stepped down from the Android business earlier this year without saying what he planned to do next at Google. The executive has been interested in robots for much of his career. Before working at Apple in the 1990s, he was a robotics engineer at German manufacturer Carl Zeiss.