Google on Friday announced that they've acquired the robotic engineering company Boston Dynamics. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company creates "machines that walk with an uncanny sense of balance and even --- cheetahlike --- run faster than the fastest humans.", The New York Times reported. It is the eighth robotics company that Google has acquired in the past six months.

Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992 by former MIT professor Marc Raibert. The company has designed mobile research robots for Pentagon clients and has also worked with the likes of Sony and CIA. It is one of the most popular and advanced robotics company in the world today.

Google executives are tight lipped on the financial details of the deal as well as the motive behind the acquisition. Although the search giant said that all existing contracts of the robotics company will be honored, it has no plans of becoming a government contractor on its own. Boston Dynamics signed earlier this year a 10.8 million contract with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

We already reported that Andy Rubin, the man behind world's most widely used smartphone OS – Android, is leading the robotic team at Google. "I am excited about Andy Rubin's next project", said Larry Page in a Google+ post. Rubin stepped down as the head of Android in March.

Some of Boston Dynamics' popular products include BigDog, a rough-terrain robot that can handle ice and snow, a fast-legged robot Cheetah that can run at around 29 mph and PETMAN, a robot designed for testing chemical protection clothing. 

Take a look at the robot maker's YouTube page to know more about its products.