Internet celebrity robot dog Spot shows off new skills: planting flowers, writing, cleaning garbage, and even playing "rope skipping" in groups

Author | Bei Shuang

When it comes to an all-round robot dog that can run, jump, and dance ballet, who do you think of?

That’s right, it must be the famous Boston Dynamics Spot.

Some time ago, Boston Dynamics released a video on Youtube in which the robot dog Spot and the humanoid robot Atlas performed a ballet show together.

Spot's light little steps, flexible and coordinated dancing made many netizens exclaim: 666, I can't wait to own it!

However, more than a month later, this internet celebrity robot dog once again amazed everyone.

Yesterday, Boston Dynamics released the official preview video of Spot, which attracted wide attention from major media. In the video, Spot has mastered many new skills, including "skipping rope".

Yes, you read that right. Spot has already learned this three-person game that is exclusive to humans, and the cooperation is quite perfect. Unlike the common Spot, the two robot dogs swinging on the rope in the video have long "arms" growing on their heads, which aroused the curiosity of many netizens.

At 1 a.m. Beijing time today, Boston Dynamics, which had whetted the appetite of the audience, held a new product launch conference for Spot. At the conference, Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter grandly launched two new Spot products - Spot Enterprise and Spot Arm, as well as a new upgraded system Scout.

So what hardcore operations do the above new products bring? Let's take a look first!

From the appearance, Spot Arm is a mechanical arm installed on the head of the robot dog, with which Spot can perform more mobile operations, such as picking up garbage, digging soil and planting flowers, writing, dragging heavy objects, opening doors, jumping rope, opening and closing gates, etc.

In the demonstration video, Spot can easily identify "garbage" in multiple scenarios such as outdoors and indoors.

Then put it in the trash can on the back. (Spot: Cleaning is a small matter, and humans don't need to intervene at all)

In addition to being a cleaner, Spot is also good at gardening.

It can drag extra-heavy stones, complete more flexible soil-digging tasks, and plant flowers and plants.

In addition, Spot's arms have super stability and accuracy. For example, the "Boston Dynamics" it wrote on the road is more neat than 90% of humans.

More importantly, Spot ARM can replace humans in many industrial scenarios to complete dangerous tasks such as opening and closing gates and pressing buttons.

In the future, this operating skill will also be used in the enterprise version of Spot.

The most important upgrade of Spot Enterprise is that it has realized autonomous charging for the first time. Zack Jackowski, chief engineer of Spot, said:

"Many important sites and equipment in industrial scenarios are not equipped with dedicated maintenance personnel. They usually send people to check some relatively simple things every few hours. If Spot can perform routine inspections and stay there 24 hours a day, it will solve many problems."

Therefore, Boston Dynamics designed an autonomous charging station for Spot, which is equipped with a small picture similar to a QR code as a marker. Spot's camera can recognize the QR code and guide it to the charging station.

Once Spot is close enough to the charging station, it can mark the location and lower its body so that its charging part is connected to the charging pile. After about 2 hours, when Spot is fully charged, the indicator light goes out, and it can automatically stand up and continue to run for 90 minutes.

In addition, the charging station is equipped with a hardwired network connection device, which allows Spot to upload the data it obtains while working to the staff during the charging process. In addition to a new docking connector installed on Spot's butt, the Spot Enterprise Edition will also be equipped with an enhanced CPU and a new version of wireless connection.

This means that the enterprise version of Spot can live "indefinitely" at a remote site with a charging station and replace humans in dangerous and simple tasks.

Seeing this, you may be wondering, how do we control Spot to charge, or complete tasks such as cleaning, gardening, remote inspection, etc. In fact, this is where the new upgraded system Scout comes in.

Scout is a new browser-based control system for Spot, which can remotely control and navigate Spot from hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Robert Playter revealed that in addition to Spot, the Scout system is also compatible with all versions of Boston Dynamics robots.

According to the official description, Scout needs to be connected to the Internet to work, but its bandwidth requirements are very small. If Spot is performing tasks in remote areas with poor signals such as oil fields and mines and cannot rely on Internet connection, the Boston Dynamics server installed on the same local area network as the Scout system and the robot will process and compress Spot's data and then send the data to the Internet.

In use, Scout OS is like playing a low-resolution video game, with a long delay between pressing a button and the robot executing it. It supports hardware such as a computer keyboard or tablet, the system observes the scene where Spot is moving through a camera, and can be navigated through a control handle - the black dot controlled by the mouse determines the direction of Spot.

In addition to flat travel, the Scout system also supports a "stair climbing" mode.

Spot chief engineer Zack Jackowski said that Boston Dynamics has implemented best security practices at every layer of the Scout system, allowing robots and servers to fully encrypt data during transmission and at rest, and added that all equipment currently in use by Boston Dynamics has undergone security audits by third-party companies, providing customers with multiple layers of protection when using the Scout system and Spot.

However, the Scout system cannot be used with Spot Arm for the time being. But company insiders said that once the two can be integrated in the future, the robot may be able to complete tasks such as pulling rods and turning valves by itself under remote control.

Since last year, Spot robot dogs have been officially sold to enterprises at a price of $74,500 (about 527,300 RMB). Robert Playter revealed that to date, Boston Dynamics has sold more than 400 quadruped robots Spot and cooperated with more than 40 companies. He also said,

"Today marks a new chapter for Spot, as Boston Dynamics transitions from providing the Spot platform to developers to providing out-of-the-box solutions."

Of course, the price of Spot Enterprise, which has added new features such as charging stations and robotic arms, will also increase.

Although Boston Dynamics has not yet disclosed the official price, Spot chief engineer Zack Jackowski revealed that the new version of Spot will cost more than $74,500, and Spot Arm will also be available to existing Spot robot users.

Reference link:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zbhvaac68Y&feature=emb_logo
  

• https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/2/22261932/boston-dynamics-spot-enterprise-self-charging-scout-web-based-control-software-robotic-arm