Dynamic Creatures, a robotics company that designs and builds interactive character robots for entertainment and hospitality brands, has announced its launch following a period in stealth.
The company is developing a new type of mobile character that navigates guest environments smoothly, understands interaction context, and responds instantly.
As Boston Dynamics’ official entertainment and hospitality partner, the company is already collaborating with a major theme park and retailer to create personalised, engaging character experiences that leave a lasting impression.
It was co-founded by CEO Marc Theermann, who previously served as Boston Dynamics' chief strategy officer and held a senior role at Google, and CTO Farbod Farshidian, a renowned robotics researcher and former research leader at the Robotics and AI Institute.
Expertise from leading robotics company
At Boston Dynamics, Theermann helped transform the research lab into a global commercial robotics enterprise, building the go-to-market infrastructure needed to deploy and service sophisticated robotic systems at scale.
Meanwhile, Farshidian has significantly contributed to learning-based control in robotics, advancing agile humanoid movements for Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot, high-speed quadrupedal locomotion, and the transfer of complex skills from simulation to real-world applications.
“At Boston Dynamics, I saw what becomes possible when advanced robotics moves from breakthrough research to reliable commercial systems,” says Theermann.
“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.”
Dynamic Creatures provides character-driven experiences using Boston Dynamics and other systems, along with custom robots designed for particular brands, environments, or narratives.
Both models combine advanced robotics with character design, adaptable behaviour, and real-time guest engagement.
SnowJay platform
Dynamic Creatures is creating a new category that sits between fixed animatronics and task-oriented service robots.
Most hospitality robots focus on functional tasks like guiding, providing information, and telepresence. In contrast, traditional stationary animatronics are usually programmed to entertain large crowds.
Dynamic Creatures' mobile characters are designed for direct, face-to-face interactions, enabling them to understand the context of each encounter and respond to individual guests rather than follow a set script.
Dynamic Creatures also introduces SnowJay, its integrated AI and robotics platform that functions as the operating system for its interactive characters. It integrates advanced robotics, learning-based control, real-time perception, behavioural programming, character design, and costuming.
This allows characters to navigate smoothly through challenging commercial settings and adjust their behaviour according to the surrounding people, activities, and context.
“Robust and fluid movement, perception and behavior have to work as one system for a character to engage naturally in the physical world,” says Farshidian.
“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.”
Characters from Dynamic Creatures, built on existing robotics platforms, can be deployed within months, greatly reducing development time compared to traditional custom character creation. Leasing models for these platform-based characters give operators more flexible options to introduce new experiences without large upfront investments.
Additionally, Dynamic Creatures creates fully original robots tailored to each project’s brand, environment, story, and creative needs.
US & European backing
Dynamic Creatures is supported by a mix of US 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.
“Dynamic Creatures is opening an important new frontier for advanced robotics,” says 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.”
From its new Boston headquarters, Dynamic Creatures currently serves theme parks, location-based entertainment venues, hotels, resorts, casinos, museums, cultural institutions, cruise ships, and live venues.
Future plans may expand to luxury retail and automotive brand experience centres, with potential uses such as roaming entertainment, brand ambassadors, concierge guidance, and personalised visitor experiences.
