Former Boston Dynamics, Google and Robotics and AI Institute leaders launch Dynamic Creatures

Dynamic Creatures, a robotics company designing and building interactive character robots for entertainment and hospitality brands, emerged from stealth mode.

The company said that it is creating a new category of mobile characters that move naturally through guest environments, understand the context of an interaction and respond in real time.

Dynamic Creatures was co-founded by CEO Marc Theermann, former chief strategy officer at Boston Dynamics and a former senior leader at Google, and chief technology officer Farbod Farshidian, a globally recognized robotics researcher and former research leader at the Robotics and AI Institute.

Robotics veterans lead Dynamic Creatures

Dynamic Creatures said that Theerman, while at Boston Dynamics, helped transform the research lab into a global commercial robotics business and built the go-to-market infrastructure to deploy and service advanced robotic systems at scale.

“At Boston Dynamics, I saw what becomes possible when advanced robotics moves from breakthrough research to reliable commercial systems,” Theermann said. “We founded Dynamic Creatures to bring that capability into guest-facing environments. Our characters do more than perform for a crowd. They can respond to an individual and create small moments of wonder that people remember.”

The company added that Farshidian has been a leading contributor to learning-based control in robotics, with research advancing agile humanoid behavior for Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot, high-speed quadrupedal movement, and the transfer of complex skills from simulation to real-world machines.

Interactive robots in entertainment and hospitality

As Boston Dynamics’ official entertainment and hospitality partner, the company said that it is already working with a large theme park and retailer to develop guest-facing character experiences designed to feel personal, attentive, and memorable.

“Dynamic Creatures is opening an important new frontier for advanced robotics,” said Amanda McMaster, interim CEO of Boston Dynamics. “As our official entertainment and hospitality partner, the company is combining proven robotic platforms with character design, adaptive behavior and real-time interaction to create experiences the market has not had access to before. Marc and Farbod bring the rare combination of commercial and technical expertise required to turn that vision into compelling, guest-facing systems.”

Dynamic Creatures said that it offers character-based experiences built on Boston Dynamics and other systems, as well as fully original robots created for a specific brand, environment or story.

Across both models, the company said that it integrates advanced robotics with character design, adaptive behavior and real-time guest interaction. Dynamic Creatures added that it is establishing a new category between fixed animatronics and task- oriented service robots. The company said that most hospitality robots are designed to complete functional tasks such as guidance, information and telepresence. Traditional stationary animatronics, meanwhile, are generally programmed to perform for a crowd.

Dynamic Creatures said that its mobile characters are designed for face-to-face engagement, allowing them to understand the context of an encounter and respond to an individual guest rather than follow a predetermined sequence.

SnowJay debuts as the first ‘dynamic creature’

Alongside its emergence from stealth mode, Dynamic Creatures also announced SnowJay: its integrated AI and robotics platform, which serves as the operating system for its interactive characters. The company said that it combines advanced robotics, learning-based control, real-time perception, behavioral programming, character design and costuming, enabling characters to move naturally through demanding commercial environments and adapt their behavior to the people, activity and context around them.

“Robust and fluid movement, perception and behavior have to work as one system for a character to engage naturally in the physical world,” Farshidian said. “SnowJay brings those capabilities together, combining reliable robotic platforms with adaptive intelligence so each character can understand its surroundings and respond in a way that fits the person, place and moment.”

Dynamic Creatures said that its characters built on existing robotics platforms can be deployed in months, significantly reducing the development timelines associated with traditional custom character builds. Additionally, the company offers leasing models for platform-based characters, giving operators a more flexible path to introducing new experiences without a large upfront capital investment.

The company said that it also designs fully original robots around each project’s brand, environment, story and creative requirements.

Dynamic Creatures said that it is backed by a mix of U.S. and European institutional investors including Eniac Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Heliad, Sunshine Lake and BlueGrass Ventures, along with strategic angel investors Marc Raibert and Lukas Ziegler.  

The company, headquartered in Boston, said that it is initially serving theme parks and other location-based entertainment venues, hotels and resorts, casinos, museums, cultural institutions, cruise ships and live venues. Dynamic Creatures said that future applications may include luxury retail and automotive brand experience centers, with potential uses ranging from roaming entertainment and brand ambassadors to concierge guidance and personalized visitor experiences.