Boston Dynamics, the creator of robotic dog, Spot, has started putting the machine to work on pilot projects. According to an article in Fast Company, the first to debut a full application using Spot is a German-American firm called Holobuilder. The group equipped the robot to regularly walk large construction sites, collecting 360-degree images to track work progress.
Spot’s first assignment was to survey construction on the new Harvey Milk Terminal 1 at San Francisco International Airport. According to the article, HoloBuilder and construction firm Hensel Phelps ran multi-week pilot tests where spot took over the surveying job that field engineers usually do with handheld 360-degree cameras.
The company also announced plans for future tests of the system, called SpotWalk. With SpotWalk, engineers first drive the dog my remote control, allowing Spot to build “a digital map” that it uses to roam on its own in the future.
The article reports that over the coming six months, HoloBuilder and Boston Dynamics will now expand SpotWalk to new tests over the coming six months. The company says it plans to build 1,000 Spots for customers by mid-2020.
Source: Fast Company
