[VIDEOS] Spot Robot Dog Adds Self Charging, Remote Operation, and Arm

Spot, the famous robot dog from Boston Dynamics, has been officially for sale to the public for less than a year, but the company has already announced major upgrades for the growing platform. Yesterday, February 2nd, Boston Dynamics held a launch event for 3 new Spot products: Enterprise, Scout, and the Spot Arm.

During the 25 minute event, which you can watch in its entirety on Boston Dynamic’s Youtube page, the company announced that they have sold over 400 of the $74,500 robot. Since its launch, the platform has also added partnerships with other technology providers, many of whom are in the construction sector. As I mentioned in my December 2020 update on Spot, it’s truly one of the only pieces of hardware in construction with so many 3rd party developers looking to collaborate with it.

“Since first launching Spot, we have worked closely with our customers to identify how the robot could best support their mission critical applications,” said Robert Playter, CEO of Boston Dynamics, in a press release. “Our customers want reliable data collection in remote, hazardous, and dynamic worksites. We developed the new Spot products with these needs in mind, and with the goal of making it easy to regularly and remotely perform critical inspections, improving safety and operations.”

This recent product launch delivers on many of the promises made when Spot was originally announced and adds additional functionality.  Let’s get into the details:

Spot Enterprise

Spot Enterprise is a newer robot, which looks much like the original Spot Explorer, but equipped with extra capabilities allowing it to perform longer tasks, like inspections, and allows more much more autonomy. Enterprise also equips Spot to self-dock itself onto a charging port, which can also be connected to the internet for full uploading of gathered data.

Enterprise also includes several other upgrades, such as extended WiFi support, additional flexibility on its payload ports for other accessories, and an expanded range for autonomous “missions.” These upgrades will enable the robot to be better used in remote and dangerous environments, reducing time needed to travel to job sites and mitigating the risk of sending humans into direct contact with hazards.

While the pricing for the original Spot Explorer is known, Spot Enterprise is likely to be more tailored to each individual customer and will require those interested to contact their sales department. Check out the video below for some more details:

Spot Scout

In conjunction with Spot Enterprise, Boston Dynamics also announced Spot Scout, which is a software that enables remote operation of the Spot robot. Users can control Spot from anywhere using Scout, employing the various sensors and cameras to control its movements and gather data. Spot can also be equipped with a microphone to listen for unwanted sounds and a thermal imager for quick diagnostics, both of which can be viewed remotely through Scout.

Spot Arm

While we already knew the arm attachment was coming, the product launch gave us a much better look at the capabilities of it – and I have to admit, it’s more impressive than I imagined. If you’ve followed along with Spot since the beginning, you know they’ve been teasing the fact that Spot could open up doors and this release will allow that to happen, thanks to not only the arm hardware itself, but what I can only assume is 4,000,000 lines of code in the software.

The attachment isn’t just a gripper, it is also equipped with sensors and cameras to allow more precise movements, such as for opening or closing a valve or switch. The arm can be controlled by the on-site tablet or through an API to use the function remotely.

To further illustrate the arms full range of motion, the clever engineers at Boston Dynamics set up a jump roping demonstration with 3 of the robots.  You can see that demonstrations and the Spot Arm performing many other tasks in the video below:

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