Skip to main content

Spot’s latest robot dance highlights new features

Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot has hit the dance floor again in a new video that seeks to highlight recent improvements made to the quadruped contraption.

No Time to Dance | Boston Dynamics

Spot, for the uninitiated, is a very versatile and incredibly smart robot that for the last few years has been available for deployment in a range of industries for tasks such as mapping, monitoring, and inspecting.

As part of ongoing promotional efforts, Boston Dynamics this week dropped a cinematically shot sequence that shows Spot working at an industrial plant, performing various jobs as it makes its way around the facility.

The story takes an unexpected turn, however, when a smitten human employee, already aware of Spot’s dancing skills, launches into an impromptu boogie with the robot dog.

Watching from afar, an employee asks her colleague if the dancing guy might actually consider getting back to work. “I hope so — Spot’s found a lot of things that need fixing,” comes the reply.

As mentioned at the top, the team at Boston Dynamics has been busy working to upgrade Spot, with the fruits of its labor unveiled this week.

Improvements include enhanced cameras that now use color imagery instead of black and white. The controller, which is used to drive the robot and also create autonomous missions, now incorporates a Samsung tablet that’s more rugged and offers better protection against harsh weather conditions.

A more powerful charging dock is also part of the package, ensuring Spot can get back to work in the space of just one hour after its battery runs low.

Anyone who has followed Spot’s development will know that Boston Dynamics offers various payloads that can be attached to the robot to make it more useful. Payloads can include components such as additional cameras, sensors, and laser scanners geared toward specific tasks. This week the company has announced two additional payloads with technology that enables next-level computation, radio communications, and 5G connectivity.

In a more in-depth video about Spot’s update, we learn that the robot is currently deployed by industries in 35 countries.

“For many innovative companies, Spot is quickly becoming an integral part of asset management strategies and long-term predictive maintenance planning,” Boston Dynamics said in a new post on its website. “From nuclear environments to construction sites to manufacturing facilities, Spot is proving that agile mobile robots can add value in a wide range of applications across many industries.”

Editors' Recommendations

Boston Dynamics’ festive robot video has a surprise ending
Boston Dynamics' Spot robot.

Robot specialists Boston Dynamics has shared a festive video featuring Spot, its dog-like robotic quadruped.

“We hope you have an uplifting holiday season!” the robotics team says in a message accompanying the 90-second skit, adding: “Spot was teleoperated by professional operators, don't try this at home.”

Read more
Intel’s upcoming laptop CPU may destroy even the best desktop chips
Intel Alder Lake mobility chip.

Benchmarks of the not-yet-released Intel Core i9-13900HX have leaked, and to call these results impressive would be an understatement.

It seems that Intel's upcoming laptop CPU may easily dethrone even some of the best desktop processors, let alone mobile chips. Even chips that are not out yet are already in danger, such as Apple's M2 Max.

Read more
The most innovative tech products of 2022
Most innovative products of 2022

We spend a lot of time here at Digital Trends fussing over the best tech products on the market, but just because something is the best doesn't necessarily mean it pushes the envelope or drives the world of technology forward in any way. So rather than recapping the best products of 2022, we wanted to take a moment to shine a spotlight on the ones that did something interesting, unusual, and potentially transformative in their respective category. With that in mind, here are our picks for the most innovative tech products of 2022.
Most innovative laptop: Asus ROG Flow Z13

The ROG Flow Z13 shouldn't be possible. By category, it's a 2-in-1 gaming laptop -- that is, a Surface Pro with some RGB lighting and a discrete GPU inside. It's the first of its kind, but as a concept, I wasn't sure I understood the premise. A gaming device this compact is going to be seriously held back by how small it is. But once I got the thing in my hands, I realized how genius the design really was.

Read more