SoftBank is buying robotics group Boston Dynamics — the makers of the bipedal Atlas, the jumping Sand Flea and the animal-like BigDog, Spot and Wildcat robots — from Alphabet, more than a year after Google’s parent first put the unit up for sale.
软银(SoftBank)正从谷歌(Google)母公司Alphabet手中收购机器人技术集团波士顿动力（Boston Dynamics）。该公司是双足的Atlas、会跳跃的沙蚤(Sand Flea)、以及动物形的大狗(BigDog)、Spot和野猫(Wildcat)等机器人的生产者。此时距离Alphabet开始将其挂牌出售已有1年多时间。
The terms of SoftBank’s acquisition, which also includes Japanese robotics group Schaft, were not disclosed.软银此次收购（日本机器人集团Schaft也参与了收购）的条款并未对外公开。Google bought Boston Dynamics, a pioneer in mechanical robotics that originated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in late 2013 at a time when Andy Rubin, creator of the Android mobile operating system, was assembling a group of roboticists for a project known internally as Replicant.2013年末，谷歌收购了波士顿动力（Boston Dynamics），后者是机械机器人技术领域的拓荒者。该技术发源于麻省理工学院(MIT)。当时，安卓(Android)手机操作系统的创立者安迪?鲁宾(Andy Rubin)正在为一个在内部被成为“Replicant”的项目召集一群机器人专家。After Mr Rubin left the company in 2014 and Google transformed into Alphabet, the technology conglomerate began to explore a sale of Boston Dynamics as part of an effort to refocus its robotics investment in areas such as self-driving cars.
在鲁宾于2014年离开谷歌、谷歌转型为Alphabet之后，这家科技企业集团开始考虑出售波士顿动力（Boston Dynamics），为的是不再聚焦于机器人投资，而是转向自动驾驶汽车等领域。“Smart robotics are going to be a key driver of the next stage of the information revolution, and Marc [Raibert] and his team at Boston Dynamics are the clear technology leaders in advanced dynamic robots,” said Masayoshi Son in a statement announcing the deal on Friday morning in Tokyo.“智能机器人技术将成为信息革命下一阶段的一个关键推动力，马克?莱伯特和他在Boston Dynamics的团队是先进动力机器人方面明显的技术领导者，”孙正义(Masayoshi Son)周五上午在宣布这项交易时发表声明称。Mr Son said that Boston Dynamics would continue to “explore applications that can help make life easier, safer and more fulfilling”.孙正义表示，波士顿动力将继续“探索那些能让人们生活得更便利、更安全、享有更大成就感的应用”。Mr Raibert, founder of Boston Dynamics, said that his team shared “SoftBank’s belief that advances in technology should be for the benefit of humanity”.波士顿都动力创始人莱伯特表示，他的团队“有着跟软银相同的信仰，认为技术进步将给人类带来好处”。