Want a dog without all the yuck of slobber, belly rubs and unconditional devotion? Well for the bargain price of $74,500 you can skip the adorable carbon-based variety and get yourself a (very originally named) Spot.
The four-legged agile robot from Boston Dynamics has up until now been used mostly by researchers. Now, any businesses can pre-order their own.
To do what, exactly?
According the company: “The combination of Spot’s sophisticated software and high performance mechanical design enables the robot to augment difficult or dangerous human work.”
Here’s how the company describes Spot:
“A nimble robot that climbs stairs and traverses rough terrain with unprecedented ease, yet is small enough to use indoors. Built to be a rugged and customizable platform, Spot has an industry track record in remote operation and autonomous sensing.”
However Boston Dynamics says buyers can’t use it to harm or intimidate anyone. People who buy them online must agree not to arm them or intentionally use them as weapons, among other conditions.
“The key goal for us is to make sure people trust robots,” Michael Perry, the company’s vice president for business development, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Somebody wanted to use Spot for a haunted house and we said no to that. It frames the robot in a negative context.”
The terms and conditions state that “Spot is an amazing robot, but is not certified safe for in-home use or intended for use near children or others who may not appreciate the hazards associated with its operation.”
Perry said if a buyer violates the conditions, the company can nullify its warranty, decline to repair the robot and not renew its license, which would eventually cause the machine to deactivate.
Boston Dynamics has been developing its dexterous robots through decades of military-funded research. The Waltham, Massachusetts, company is now finding commercial applications for them for the first time since it was founded in 1992.
The company announced last year that it would begin mass production of Spot. As a pilot project, it leased more than 150 of the robots to select customers for such uses as monitoring construction sites, inspecting energy facilities and performing in theme parks. A human can operate the robots remotely, and in certain settings they can operate autonomously. The robots can run for about 90 minutes before they need recharging.
Spot could be used in healthcare settings, says Boston Dynamics. Note device for video interaction.
In one recent pilot in Singapore, a Spot robot was deployed in a public park to broadcast prerecorded messages asking people to maintain distance from one another to prevent spread of the coronavirus. It was also used to interview patients at a Boston hospital’s COVID-19 triage center and check their body temperature and other vitals.
Boston Dynamics says its sales are intended for commercial and industrial users and that the robots can only be purchased in the U.S.
