Boston Dynamics' Spot Becomes a Robotic Watchdog for Hyundai

CNET's Roadshow reports that a safety-oriented version of Boston Dynamics' headless dog-shaped robot "Spot" will begin patrolling a Kia plant in South Korea, "to survey industrial areas remotely and help identify issues before they happen." For example, Spot's new thermal camera and 3D lidar (courtesy of Hyundai's technology chest) can identify personnel near machinery with high temperatures. In this case, our robotic canine friend may be able to pinpoint a fire hazard before a human does. The robot can be controlled remotely by human operators as well, and send potential alarms for hazards and notify plant management of a situation. Hyundai also plans to have the robot accompany night patrols to create a safer environment. With new gadgetry attached to Spot, including the latest artificial intelligence that helps it understand if doors are open or closed, the automaker believes the robot can play a big part in security...

All of Spot's new tasks are part of a pilot program so Hyundai can see if there's value in deploying additional Spot-based, robotic security dogs in other plants.
Hyundai's motor group has released a slick video showing the security robot in action.

It ends with the words "Robotics for Humanity."

Where Does It Poop?

[zenlessyank]

And I don't see any teeth or a gun.

"Robotics for Humanity."

[fustakrakich]

To Serve Man

In my day ...

[PPH]

... these were known as junkyard dogs.

Re:

[maybe111]

a real dog would probably still do better

I've seen this Black Mirror episode...

[PseudoThink]

Humanity ends the world with "Robotics".

Sigh....

[Puls4r]

Basic industrial hygiene is that electrical panels and motors on machines should be routine shot with an IR camera to look for high voltage / current loose connections or issues.

Until spot learns how to open electrical panels, and remove motor guarding, this is little more than a dog and pony show - even if it COULD do those things, it's easier, faster, and cheaper to have a tradesman do it who can repair the issue on the spot.

If only our slashdot editors could post actual stories of interest rather t

Re:

[ctilsie242]

I don't know if it can't hurt. Especially if it is smart enough to detect oddities with regards to IR, for example, some joint in wiring, or something under the floorboards is glowing hot, that might just mitigate stuff before wires start melting. Of course, with any AI, the hard part is training it, so someone's toaster oven doesn't register as a potential dead short. Tradesmen are still important... this is not to say that the doggie will be getting rid of them, but this can be quite a useful diagnosti

Running the daily diff

[Jeremi]

I can see how this might be useful, if the bot (and the software it runs on) is sophisticated enough to do its daily rounds and then compute a "diff" of what it saw today vs what it saw yesterday.

Anything that is significantly different can then get flagged and passed on to a human being for further evaluation.

That could work to quickly catch problems that might otherwise go unnoticed. Of course the trick would be coming up with a threshold for "significantly different" that is low enough to catch real pro

Re:

[yes-but-no]

There is a word for it - "anomaly detection" . Used in other places like in network traffic patterns in ISP (to detect say a virus spreading or DDoS in near real time). You need large historical data and some kinda AI/data-mining to fix the baseline. I think the spot/dog could just go around and collect data (visual/auditory) and upload to a big server (say in cloud).

Useless

[nospam007]

Because he's a good boy.

blanket

[MrL0G1C]

What can it detect if you throw a blanket over it?

why legged?

[4wdloop]

There is a brief and apparently fake moment when the edog walks on some upper platform. Otherwise I do not see why such complicated walking machine is necessary. A wheeled robot could use elevators, no?

Re: why legged?

[Guru2Newbie]

Ask an older-model Dalek about its EXTERMINATE-tion efficiency when only stairs are available, not elevators.

Re: why legged?

[4wdloop]

Still, a fleet of wheeled robots, one on each floor seems more effective and likely cheaper.

Just wait for army to get these

[firecode]

Scary thing would be that military adds weapons to these robots. They could be used to clear humans from enemy/rebelling cities that are against rulers.