David Robert is the former Director of Human-Robot Interaction at Boston Dynamics, where his transdisciplinary team defined the look, behaviour and personality of Atlas, Spot and the entire product line. His path there spans Pixar, DreamWorks, LucasArts, and the MIT Media Lab’s Personal Robots Group.

At the core of his work is a simple but radical principle: the human experience of the robot always comes before the technology itself. Every system he’s designed — from expressive child-robot interactions at MIT to the industrial UX of Boston Dynamics’ product line — has been built to maximize benefit to the humans in the room.

He sees humanoid robot design as the natural next stage of animation. Off the screen, and into the world.

In parallel, his art practice explores consciousness and interspecies communication through sound and moving image. He brings that same depth to the POV stage.