Boston Dynamics Veterans Launch Dynamic Creatures to Bring Characters to Life
Dynamic Creatures, a startup focused on bringing characters to life through robotics for entertainment, has been launched by two veterans of Boston Dynamics. The founders are Marc Theermann, who served as Boston Dynamics' chief strategy officer, and Farbod Farshidian, a former research leader at the Robotics and AI Institute. Theermann said the name pays homage to both Boston Dynamics and Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
Boston Dynamics has gained public attention through videos of its robots dancing, performing stunts, and appearing on shows like America's Got Talent and FIFA World Cup events. Theermann explained that these videos were released for fun and to help the general public become familiar with robots, which he believes will eventually be integrated into daily life. He observed that people enjoy watching robots dance, which sparked interest in entertainment applications. Dynamic Creatures targets theme parks, casinos, cruise ships, and hospitality environments, and it is designated as Boston Dynamics' official entertainment and hospitality partner.
Amanda McMaster, interim CEO of Boston Dynamics, said Dynamic Creatures opens a new frontier for advanced robotics. She noted that as the official partner, the company combines proven robotic platforms with character design, adaptive behavior, and real-time interaction to deliver experiences the market has not previously accessed. McMaster added that Theermann and Farshidian possess the commercial and technical expertise required to create compelling guest-facing systems. Dynamic Creatures is supported by institutional investors from the U.S. and Europe, including Eniac Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Heliad, Sunshine Lake, and BlueGrass Ventures, as well as strategic angels such as Marc Raibert, founder of Boston Dynamics and executive director of the RAI Institute.
Dynamic Creatures also introduced SnowJay, an integrated AI and robotics platform that serves as the operating layer for its robots. The platform has two primary focuses: natural movement and human-robot interaction. According to Theermann, SnowJay enables robots to walk in organic and lifelike ways through a combination of motion capture, animation, NVIDIA tools, and reinforcement learning. Farshidian leads the locomotion research and helped give Atlas a more natural gait during its debut at CES 2026. Theermann emphasized that many robots are "deaf and mute," and that for robots to be accepted in restaurants and public spaces, they must improve human-robot interaction. While the broader robotics field concentrates on vision-language-action models and dexterous manipulation, Dynamic Creatures prioritizes human-robot interaction as the ultimate output.
Currently, Dynamic Creatures builds upon third-party hardware, notably Boston Dynamics' Spot quadruped and Atlas humanoid, and it also supports Unitree robots. Theermann indicated that the company has aspirations to develop its own humanoid hardware and become a full-stack robotics enterprise. The startup has created two in-house prototype characters: a purple poodle named Danielle and a Tyrolean mountain troll similar to a Yeti. However, its first two partners are seeking characters from famous intellectual properties. Theermann explained that these partners come with existing IP from movies or TV shows and ask, "Can you bring my IP to life?" for their theme parks or red-carpet events.
For its initial deployments, Dynamic Creatures will use human operators to control the robots, allowing the collection of essential data for training its models. Theermann stated that such interaction data can only be obtained through direct human contact, which is why hospitality and events are crucial. The company has hired puppeteers to explore different emotional behaviors and determine what resonates with audiences, such as what makes people laugh. Dynamic Creatures expects its first customer deployments in early 2027, which will begin as managed pilots blending teleoperation and autonomy, a mode referred to as "assisted autonomy." These pilots will involve sending both humans and robots to customer sites, closely monitoring interactions to learn together with clients. Over time, the operator-to-robot ratio is expected to evolve from one-to-one to one-to-many, and control may transition from teleoperation to telemonitoring, potentially offsite.
Safety and semantic navigation represent major research areas for Dynamic Creatures. Theermann highlighted that humanoid safety is not yet fully resolved; in factory settings, humanoids are often confined behind light curtains that halt operations when a person enters. He envisions a future where people can safely hug robots, which requires a fundamentally different approach to safety. The company aims to lead in safe human-robot interaction, and Theermann said it wants to become the best at that discipline.