Boston Dynamics’ robot dog Spot is herding sheep on a rugged New Zealand mountainside. It’s something you might not have expected to see, but Spot is flawlessly doing its job.
A video with Spot has been released on the Internet recently. The slightly awkward sequence is part of a promotional video proving Spot’s skills in the agricultural industry. Here is what you need to know.
Meet Spot, the Robot Dog
If you’ve never heard of Spot before, the robot dog has been entertaining and inspiring people for years now. Spot is becoming more intelligent and capable. One of its best tricks is being able to open doors.
One of the particular advantages of Spot is its nimbleness. Its four bendable legs allow it to walk on all types of terrain that would defeat a robot on wheels. It can also pick itself up again if it falls or stumbles over. Such robots can be used for lots of useful purposes. For instance, they can be utilized in disaster regions where it’s dangerous for human recovery workers to go. The robots have cameras and on-board sensors to guide them, with instructions pre-programmed into them by engineers.
They’re already being utilized to track energy industry infrastructure, verifying for issues and damage that would otherwise go unidentified. A few weeks ago, a Spot robot dog was on patrol in Singapore, informing people to practice social distancing and to keep a safe distance from each other while out and about.
The recent robot dog, however, impressed everyone with its skills. Rocos, the robotics software company, released a video of Spot checking on crops and herding sheep. Here is the full video.
For farmers, having a robot around to monitor the fields, check the crop growth or fruit ripening, would be extremely useful. Robots like these can walk, fly, or roll along, and they also carry all types of sensors to evaluate the environment around them.
“By connecting robots to the cloud, we can help them combine a cloud software layer with robotics to achieve physical automation at scale,” explained Rocos CEO David Inggs. In the coming years, robots like Spot could be used in all types of agriculture and other industries. The future will surely be more friendly with these cute robot dogs!
