# Marc Raibert
**Marc Raibert** is an American roboticist known for legged robots that balance dynamically: he founded [Boston Dynamics](https://www.edgepedia.org/boston-dynamics) in 1992 as a spin-off from MIT[1](https://cbmm.mit.edu/about/people/raibert) and serves as Executive Director of the Robotics & AI Institute (RAI Institute), a research laboratory funded by [Hyundai Motor Group](https://www.edgepedia.org/hyundai-motor-group).[2](https://rai-inst.com/about/) Before industry, he was a professor at [Carnegie Mellon University](https://www.edgepedia.org/carnegie-mellon-university) and MIT, where he founded the Leg Laboratory and built the one-legged hopping machines that demonstrated active balance as a practical approach to robot locomotion.[1](https://cbmm.mit.edu/about/people/raibert)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born field | Robotics, legged locomotion, and dynamic balance |
| Education | B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Northeastern University, 1973; Ph.D., MIT, 1977[3](http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/old-leglab/people/mxr.html) |
| Faculty career | Carnegie Mellon 1980/1981–1986; MIT EECS professor 1986–1995[3](http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/old-leglab/people/mxr.html) • [1](https://cbmm.mit.edu/about/people/raibert) |
| Signature work | "Experiments in Balance with a 3D One-Legged Hopping Machine" (IJRR, 1984); *Legged Robots That Balance* (MIT Press, 1986) |
| Company | Founded Boston Dynamics, 1992; CEO until end of 2019[1](https://cbmm.mit.edu/about/people/raibert) • [4](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/29/business/boston-dynamics-robot-museum-marc-raibert/) |
| Current role | Executive Director, RAI Institute (founded August 2022, over $400 million initial investment)[5](https://www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/newsroom/detail/0000000106) |
| Honors | National Academy of Engineering (2008); IEEE Pioneer in Robotics and Engelberger Award (2022)[1](https://cbmm.mit.edu/about/people/raibert) • [6](https://www.bu.edu/cise/cise-seminar-marc-raibert-boston-dynamics/) |
## Education and early career
Raibert received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from [Northeastern University](https://www.edgepedia.org/northeastern-university) in 1973 and a Ph.D. from MIT in 1977; his thesis, "Motor control and learning by the state space model," used robotics techniques to model biological behavior.[3](http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/old-leglab/people/mxr.html) From 1977 through 1980 he worked on robot sensing and control at the [Jet Propulsion Laboratory](https://www.edgepedia.org/jet-propulsion-laboratory) and Caltech.[3](http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/old-leglab/people/mxr.html) He then joined the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University's Computer Science Department and [Robotics Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/robotics-institute); his MIT Leg Lab page gives the dates 1981 to 1986, while MIT's Center for Brains, Minds & Machines profile says 1980 to 1986.[3](http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/old-leglab/people/mxr.html) • [1](https://cbmm.mit.edu/about/people/raibert) At CMU he was Associate Professor of Computer Science and Robotics.[1](https://cbmm.mit.edu/about/people/raibert)
## The Leg Laboratory and hopping robots
Raibert established the Leg Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon in 1980 and moved it to MIT in 1986.[7](http://www.robothalloffame.org/inductees/08inductees/raibert.html) In an interview he recalled that the first hopping machine worked around 1982 and a 3D version in 1983.[8](https://lexfridman.com/marc-raibert-transcript/) The lab's premise was that robots, like running animals, need to rely on motion for stability rather than standing still; the one-legged Hopper was ideal for studying this because it could not stand still at all.[7](http://www.robothalloffame.org/inductees/08inductees/raibert.html)
**Three-part control.** The 1984 IJRR paper decomposed control of the 3D one-legged machine into three parts: one controlling forward running velocity, one controlling body attitude, and a third controlling hopping height.[9](https://doi.org/10.1177/027836498400300207) In the CMU technical report Raibert described the mechanism of each part: the height controller injects a fixed amount of energy each hopping cycle, the velocity controller places the foot a specific distance in front of the hip (generalized through the CG-print, the locus over which the center of gravity travels during stance), and the attitude controller applies hip torque while the foot is on the ground.[10](https://publications.ri.cmu.edu/storage/publications/pub_files/pub3/raibert_marc_1983_1/raibert_marc_1983_1.pdf) [Experiments](https://www.edgepedia.org/experiments) showed this simple scheme permitted hopping in place, running at a desired rate, and travel along a simple path, and that the 3D algorithms were direct generalizations of the 2D ones with surprisingly little additional complication.[9](https://doi.org/10.1177/027836498400300207) The leg itself had a spring in series with the axial actuator, so hopping was a resonant bouncing motion.[11](https://publications.ri.cmu.edu/storage/publications/pub_files/pub3/raibert_m_h_1986_1/raibert_m_h_1986_1.pdf) A 1986 IEEE Expert review of his book noted that, contrary to expectations, control of one-legged running machines is not particularly difficult, and that his work was unique in emphasizing dynamics and active balance, aspects that had played a minor role in most previous work.[12](https://doi.org/10.1109/mex.1986.4307016)
**From one leg to four.** The quadruped work extended the same three-part decomposition to four-legged running by treating pairs of legs acting in unison, in the trot, pace, and bound gaits, as equivalent "virtual legs"; experiments verified a four-legged machine running with a trotting gait using the one-legged algorithms.[11](https://publications.ri.cmu.edu/storage/publications/pub_files/pub3/raibert_m_h_1986_1/raibert_m_h_1986_1.pdf) At MIT, the group's 1985–1989 report covered biped locomotion control, terrain footholds, high-speed running, biped gymnastics, symmetry in running, and mechanical design of articulated legs.[13](https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6820) The Leg Lab's robots, including one-legged hoppers, biped runners, a quadruped, and two kangaroo-like machines, could balance actively, climb a simple stairway, run at 13.1 mph, run with several gaits, and do rudimentary gymnastic maneuvers.[3](http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/old-leglab/people/mxr.html)
## Representative work
- **"Experiments in Balance with a 3D One-Legged Hopping Machine,"** *The International Journal of Robotics Research*, 1984. In *Experiments in Balance with a 3D One-Legged Hopping Machine* (1984), the authors introduced the three-part control decomposition and reported physical experiments showing hopping in place, controlled running, and path following with the 3D machine.[9](https://doi.org/10.1177/027836498400300207)
- **"Running With Symmetry,"** *The International Journal of Robotics Research*, 1986. According to *Running With Symmetry*, a single set of equations describes symmetric running for systems with any number of legs and a wide range of gaits; symmetry-based techniques controlled machines running on one, two, and four legs, and data from a trotting and galloping cat and a running human conformed reasonably well to the predicted symmetries. A companion paper, "Symmetry in Running," appeared in *Science* the same year.[14](https://doi.org/10.1177/027836498600500401)
- ***Legged Robots That Balance***, MIT Press, 1986. The fifteenth volume in the Artificial Intelligence Series edited by [Patrick Winston](https://www.edgepedia.org/patrick-winston) and Michael Brady, it covers the analysis, simulation, and laboratory experiments behind the one-legged machines and preliminary quadruped experiments.[12](https://doi.org/10.1109/mex.1986.4307016)
## Boston Dynamics
Raibert founded Boston Dynamics in 1992 as a spin-off from MIT.[1](https://cbmm.mit.edu/about/people/raibert) He told IEEE Spectrum that it was not initially a robotics company at all but a modeling and simulation company, and that it pivoted to robotics after work for Sony and the BigDog proposal.[15](https://spectrum.ieee.org/marc-raibert-boston-dynamics-instutute) The company went on to develop dynamic robots including BigDog, Atlas, Cheetah, SandFlea, and Spot.[1](https://cbmm.mit.edu/about/people/raibert) When Google acquired Boston Dynamics in 2013, Raibert became Director of Robotics at Google.[1](https://cbmm.mit.edu/about/people/raibert) He stepped down as chief executive at the end of 2019, a few years before Spot starred in a [Super Bowl](https://www.edgepedia.org/super-bowl) ad.[4](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/29/business/boston-dynamics-robot-museum-marc-raibert/)
**Commercial products.** Spot, the company's first commercial product introduced in 2019, starts at $74,500 for the base kit.[16](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/05/16/business/marc-raibert-master-robotics-is-making-machines-smarter-more-useful/) • [21](https://www.thepricer.org/how-much-does-a-boston-dynamics-robot-dog-cost/) Stretch, a wheeled robot that rolls into a [semi-trailer](https://www.edgepedia.org/semi-trailer) and unloads it with a mechanical arm lifting up to 50 pounds, was sold out for the rest of 2022 and early 2023 at its commercial announcement.[16](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/05/16/business/marc-raibert-master-robotics-is-making-machines-smarter-more-useful/)
## Boston Dynamics AI Institute (RAI Institute)
Hyundai Motor Group and Boston Dynamics announced the launch of the [Boston Dynamics AI Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/boston-dynamics-ai-institute) on August 12, 2022, with an initial investment of more than $400 million, led by Raibert and headquartered in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts.[5](https://www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/newsroom/detail/0000000106) The institute works in four core technical areas: cognitive AI, athletic AI, organic hardware design, and ethics and policy.[5](https://www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/newsroom/detail/0000000106) Now named the RAI Institute, it has offices in Cambridge and Zurich, Switzerland, and develops technology aimed at increasing productivity, contributing to human safety, and caring for people with disabilities.[2](https://rai-inst.com/about/) As of July 2025 it had 260 employees.[4](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/29/business/boston-dynamics-robot-museum-marc-raibert/) Raibert stated the Institute would not take over the Atlas program, which Boston Dynamics retains.[15](https://spectrum.ieee.org/marc-raibert-boston-dynamics-instutute)
## Recent developments
On February 5, 2025, Boston Dynamics and the RAI Institute announced a partnership to advance humanoid robots through reinforcement learning on the new electric Atlas, establishing a shared RL training pipeline targeting [sim-to-real transfer](https://www.edgepedia.org/sim-to-real-transfer) for agile locomotion, whole-body loco-manipulation, and full-body contact strategies such as dynamic running.[17](https://bostondynamics.com/news/boston-dynamics-and-the-robotics-ai-institute-partner/) In 2025 the Institute also introduced the ReLIC (Reinforcement Learning for Interlimb Coordination) framework, which lets robots dynamically reassign limb roles during task execution rather than fixing them into predefined roles.[18](https://rai-inst.com/resources/blog/rai-institute-2025-a-year-of-innovation-for-robotics-and-ai/) Other projects include an ultra mobile vehicle that drives without GPS and leaps over obstacles, and "Watch, Understand, Do" software for training robots by watching humans perform multistep tasks.[4](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/29/business/boston-dynamics-robot-museum-marc-raibert/) In February 2025 Raibert said the Institute buys robots from China's Unitree to run tests.[19](https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/exclusive-boston-dynamics-buys-robots-from-chinas-unitree-to-run-tests-founder-says)
## Honors and recognition
Raibert became a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2008.[1](https://cbmm.mit.edu/about/people/raibert) In 2022 he was named Pioneer in Robotics by IEEE and received the Engelberger Award in Technology, and the One-legged Hopper and BigDog were inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame.[20](https://semxxi.mit.edu/program/faculty/marc-raibert) According to the Robot Hall of Fame, the Raibert Hopper was inducted in 2008.[7](http://www.robothalloffame.org/inductees/08inductees/raibert.html) He was named to Time's 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2023 and received the [IEEE Robotics and Automation Award](https://www.edgepedia.org/ieee-robotics-and-automation-award) in 2025, and he is a Founding Fellow of the [Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence](https://www.edgepedia.org/association-for-the-advancement-of-artificial-intelligence).[6](https://www.bu.edu/cise/cise-seminar-marc-raibert-boston-dynamics/) • [22](https://www.ieee-ras.org/marc-raibert-to-receive-the-2025-ieee-robotics-and-automation-technical-field-award/)
## References
1. [Marc Raibert, MIT Center for Brains, Minds & Machines](https://cbmm.mit.edu/about/people/raibert)
2. [About the RAI Institute](https://rai-inst.com/about/)
3. [Marc Raibert, MIT Leg Laboratory people page](http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/old-leglab/people/mxr.html)
4. [Boston Dynamics founder shows off robots while institute cranks on AI (The Boston Globe, July 29, 2025)](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/29/business/boston-dynamics-robot-museum-marc-raibert/)
5. [Hyundai Motor Group Launches Boston Dynamics AI Institute (August 12, 2022)](https://www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/newsroom/detail/0000000106)
6. [CISE/Hariri Institute Distinguished Seminar: Marc Raibert (Boston University)](https://www.bu.edu/cise/cise-seminar-marc-raibert-boston-dynamics/)
7. [Robot Hall of Fame: Raibert Hopper (2008)](http://www.robothalloffame.org/inductees/08inductees/raibert.html)
8. [Marc Raibert: Boston Dynamics and the Future of Robotics (Lex Fridman Podcast #412)](https://lexfridman.com/marc-raibert-transcript/)
9. [Experiments in Balance with a 3D One-Legged Hopping Machine (IJRR, 1984)](https://doi.org/10.1177/027836498400300207)
10. [Dynamically Stable Legged Locomotion (CMU Robotics Institute, 1983)](https://publications.ri.cmu.edu/storage/publications/pub_files/pub3/raibert_marc_1983_1/raibert_marc_1983_1.pdf)
11. [Running on four legs as though they were one (IEEE JRA, 1986)](https://publications.ri.cmu.edu/storage/publications/pub_files/pub3/raibert_m_h_1986_1/raibert_m_h_1986_1.pdf)
12. [Legged Robots That Balance, book review (IEEE Expert, 1986)](https://doi.org/10.1109/mex.1986.4307016)
13. [Dynamically Stable Legged Locomotion, 1985–1989 (MIT DSpace)](https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6820)
14. [Running With Symmetry (IJRR, 1986)](https://doi.org/10.1177/027836498600500401)
15. [Q&A: Marc Raibert on the Boston Dynamics AI Institute (IEEE Spectrum, 2022)](https://spectrum.ieee.org/marc-raibert-boston-dynamics-instutute)
16. [Marc Raibert, master of robotics (The Boston Globe, May 16, 2022)](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/05/16/business/marc-raibert-master-robotics-is-making-machines-smarter-more-useful/)
17. [Boston Dynamics and the RAI Institute Partner (February 5, 2025)](https://bostondynamics.com/news/boston-dynamics-and-the-robotics-ai-institute-partner/)
18. [RAI Institute 2025: A Year of Innovation](https://rai-inst.com/resources/blog/rai-institute-2025-a-year-of-innovation-for-robotics-and-ai/)
19. [RAI Institute Buys Robots From China's Unitree (Yicai Global, February 25, 2025)](https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/exclusive-boston-dynamics-buys-robots-from-chinas-unitree-to-run-tests-founder-says)
20. [Marc Raibert, MIT Seminar XXI faculty page](https://semxxi.mit.edu/program/faculty/marc-raibert)
21. [How much does a boston dynamics robot dog cost (thepricer.org)](https://www.thepricer.org/how-much-does-a-boston-dynamics-robot-dog-cost/)
22. [Marc raibert to receive the 2025 ieee robotics and automation technical field award (ieee-ras.org)](https://www.ieee-ras.org/marc-raibert-to-receive-the-2025-ieee-robotics-and-automation-technical-field-award/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Technology and the built world › Engineers and computer scientists › Engineers and materials scientists › Researchers in mechanical and aerospace engineering, robotics, and control › Robotics*
*Initially written Sep 21, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 25, 2026; Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 25, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license