Spot, SpotMini, four-legged robots, Boston Dynamics, Inc., Waltham, Massachusetts, USA


How Boston Dynamics is building its robot empire

Oct 9, 2021

Boston Dynamics has sparked the imaginations of the general public with its viral YouTube videos, but the company is now hoping to get the attention of paying customers. Initially, Boston Dynamics received a lot of its funding from the U.S. military and DARPA. Later, it was financed by big-name owners including Google, SoftBank and most recently, Hyundai. All of these companies have tried to steer the robot maker on a path to commercialization, and Boston Dynamics is finally getting there. CNBC got a rare look at Boston Dynamics’ office in Massachusetts, where the team showed off two of the robots they are working to commercialize: Spot and Stretch.
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High Voltage Spot Inspections at National Grid

Oct 13, 2021

Energy giant National Grid is using Spot to keep employees safe and ensure uptime at a critical facility.

National Grid introduced Spot into the thyristor hall at Sandy Pond Converter Station just a few days before the facility’s shutdown period. The inspection robot was equipped with both a high-resolution 30X optical zoom pan/tilt/zoom camera and an infrared (IR) thermal camera to detect signs of potential problems.

A top priority at the facility is the monitoring of equipment conditions. Because the valve hall is water-cooled, any leaks could cause issues leading to equipment overheating and malfunction. While stationary cameras could detect signs of water leaks in certain locations, there’s no way for those cameras to cover every angle of the valve hall.

With the optical zoom camera, Spot was able to inspect the equipment during operation. Just as importantly, the IR camera allowed the robot to detect “hot spots,” where the equipment is hotter in some areas than others.
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Autonomous MOBILE Inspection with Spot

Jan 24, 2022

This video demonstrates an end-to-end LIDAR mapping and autonomy system for robot inspection of complex, multi-floor industrial facilities demonstrated on the Boston Dynamics Spot quadruped robot.

It combines systems developed by two ORI's research groups:
DRS (mapping): https://ori.ox.ac.uk/labs/drs
GOALS (autonomy): https://ori.ox.ac.uk/labs/goals

Part of the Innovate UK funded AutoInspect Project with Createc Ltd
https://ori.ox.ac.uk/projects/autoinspect
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Your cousin from Boston (Dynamics)

Feb 4, 2022

While working security at the Boston Dynamics robotics lab, Your Cousin From Boston gives a robot a Sam Adams. At least he brought a Wicked IPA Party Pack to share!
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No time to dance

May 3, 2022

Spot may have moves, but in the real world, the robot gets down and dirty, helping industrial teams keep their sites efficient and safe.

00:00 A New Coworker
00:15 Autowalk Mission
00:25 Reading Analog Gauges
01:05 Thermal Inspection
01:12 Work Order Generated
01:32 We Meet Again
01:46 The Dance
2:12 More Work to Do
02:20 Finale
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What’s new in Spot

May 3, 2022

We’re excited to announce the latest advancements to Spot’s hardware and ecosystem.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen our customers make huge strides in what they’ve been able to accomplish with Spot – including collecting thousands of data points to drive predictive maintenance models, building comprehensive digital twins of their construction sites, and keeping workers away from dangerous or hazardous situations. We can’t wait to see what they’ll be able to do next.

Customer footage courtesy of Acciona, Energy Robotics, Fluke Process Instruments, and Sprint Reply.

00:00 Introduction
01:24 Improvements to the Spot Base Platform
02:40 New Sensors
03:11 New Samsung Tablet
04:26 New Charger
05:09 Expanded Payload Ecosystem
05:26 Rajant Kinetic Mesh Radio Kit
06:17 Inside the Rajant Kit
06:37 Introducing Spot CORE I/O
07:43 5G Launch Provider
08:21 Continued Support
09:52 A Robot for the Real World
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"Doing more with spot"
Boston Dynamics continues to add new features and capabilities to the Spot platform. Our latest improvements include hardware upgrades and an expanded payload ecosystem.

by Boston Dynamics team
May 3, 2022
 

Spot at Globalfoundries | Enterprise Asset Management

May 12, 2022

Globalfoundries, a global semiconductor manufacturer, has turned to Spot to further automate their data collection for condition monitoring and predictive maintenance. Globalfoundries’ semiconductor manufacturing facility in Burlington, Vermont creates products that go into communication devices, RF technology, and more.

Manufacturing facilities are filled with thousands of inspection points, and adding fixed sensors to all these assets is not economical. With Spot bringing the sensors to their assets, the team collects valuable information about the thermal condition of pumps and motors, as well as taking analog gauge readings. Since this equipment has a long life cycle and slow rate of change, the team can better monitor these assets over time - making better informed decisions to keep the facility running.

Boston Dynamics partner Levatas worked to implement automated inspection missions at Globalfoundries’ facility. Building computer vision models based on gauges and motors of a variety of equipment, Levatas was able to provide Spot the cognitive intelligence it needs to know what it’s looking at, and make decisions based on that information.

Register for our webinar to learn more about Spot's inspection and enterprise asset management capabilities: https://bosdyn.co/3M8m9YU
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Robot discussion between Marc Raibert & Daniela Rus | Daniela Rus & Marc Raibert | TEDxMIT

Jul 21, 2022

Conversation between two leaders in the Robot space Daniela Rus is the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. Rus’s research interests are in robotics, mobile computing, and data science. Rus is a Class of 2002 MacArthur Fellow, a fellow of ACM, AAAI and IEEE, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy for Arts and Science. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University.

Marc Raibert (born December 22, 1949) is the founder, former CEO, and now Chairman of Boston Dynamics, a robotics company known for creating BigDog, Atlas, Spot, and Handle. Before starting Boston Dynamics, Raibert was professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and an associate professor of Computer Science and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. At CMU he founded the Leg Laboratory (1980), a lab that helped establish the scientific basis for highly dynamic robots. Raibert developed the first self-balancing hopping robots, a significant step forward in robotics.Raibert earned an Electrical Engineering, BSEE from Northeastern University in 1973 and a PhD from MIT in 1977. His dissertation is entitled "Motor control and learning by the state space model".Raibert was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2008 for biomechanically motivated analysis, synthesis, control, and application of multi-legged robots.
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Spot autonomously riding elevators and opening doors

Sep 19, 2022

A one year update of our ongoing project with Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and RMUS Canada to investigate the capabilities of Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot for autonomous inspection and first response in the power sector. Highlights of the first year of the project, featuring the work of PhD student Christopher Baird, include autonomous elevator riding and autonomous door opening (including proxy card access doors) as part of Autowalks, as well as autonomous firefighting.
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Automated thermal inspections with Spot

Oct 14, 2022

Detecting an overheating motor can be the difference between a $1,000 repair or a $50,000 replacement. As a result, routine thermal inspections are a major part of predictive maintenance operations, but collecting this valuable information frequently is still a challenge in many facilities.

Agile mobile robots like Spot are transforming condition monitoring with dynamic sensing, so industrial teams can make the most of their predictive maintenance programs.
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Walk the Walk: HyundaiMotor X BTS for 'BTS Yet To Come in BUSAN' concert

Oct 17, 2022

Spot's got permission to dance! Check out this dance created for the 'BTS Yet To Come in BUSAN' concert.
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Spot for Academia & Research

Nov 7, 2022

Spot’s mobility, paired with its open platform for sensing and manipulation, offers the flexibility you need for research and education. With out-of-the-box functionality, Spot can handle its own mobility, autonomy, and navigation while researchers and developers augment the robot in the area of innovation most interesting to them.
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bostondynamics.com/solutions/academia-research
 

See Spot work

Apr 19, 2023

Around the world and around the clock. Boston Dynamics Spot is on site adding value for customers today. Learn more at http://bostondynamics.com/spot

Spot is an agile mobile robot that navigates terrain with unprecedented mobility, allowing you to automate routine inspection tasks and data capture safely, accurately, and frequently. Discover how Spot is being put to work in the real world.
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