Boston Dynamics is ready to see its eye-catching robots take the market in a big way,
Right now, the focus is on Spot, the versatile quadruped first made commercially available in June 2020.
'The next big industry for Spot is really in this market that we're calling industrial sensing or dynamics sensing,' Zack Jackowski, chief engineer of the Spot product, told told CNBC over the weekend.
'[That's] where we have robots walking around places like manufacturing plants, chemical plants, utilities [and] installations, and using the robots to collect data on what's happening in these facilities in an automated way,' he said.
Being able to get repeatable, high quality data from Spot, Jackowski added, could enable companies to boost safety and efficiency in ways they never considered before.
While Boston Dynamics likes to play up Spot's softer side — releasing videos of it playing fetch and dancing to bops by K-pop sensation BTS and other acts — it's already employed by Hyundai to patrol assembly lines at a Kia factory in Gwangmyeong, Korea.
Hyundai has equipped the robot with a thermal camera and three-dimensional LiDAR sensing technology that allows it to see humans, determine whether doors are open or closed, monitor high-temperature systems, and detect fire hazards.
It can also be controlled remotely, allowing office personnel to survey the factory from a central location.
Should this trial run prove to be successful, Hyundai says it will expand the robot's patrol areas and consider deployment to additional sites.
The Korean carmaker completed its purchase of Boston Dynamics from the SoftBank Group Corp in June 2021 for an estimated $1.1 billion.
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Spot engineer Zack Jackowski said the next market for the robot pooch is 'industrial sensing,' where it patrols plants, utilities and installations collecting data to improve safety and efficiency. Pictured: Hyundai, which garnered a controlling share of Boston Dynamics in June, has installed Spot at a Kia factories in Korea
Spot has also been utilized to inspect nuclear power plants, oil rigs, and construction sites; sniff out symptoms of COVID-19, and even herd sheep.
The yellow-and-black robot is also being used by the French army in training scenarios and also by the New York Police Department, which it renamed 'Digidog.'
NASA is also training Spot to eventually explore caves on Mars for signs of life.
Boston Dynamic first unleashed Spot to the commercial
