Watch this dog-like robot that uses Palm Beach County artificial intelligence to do its job
This isn’t your grandparents’ pet pooch.
Spot the four-legged “dog” robot is a roughly $200,000 piece of technology created by Boston Dynamics of Massachusetts — and powered in part by artificial intelligence technology created by Palm Beach County-based Levatas.
The robot and technology behind its smarts were featured Monday during the first Corporate Partners Business Speaker Series installment of the season featuring Chris Nielsen, founder and CEO of Palm Beach County-based Levatas, in conversation with Palm Beach State College President Ava Parker.
Attendees of the luncheon were dazzled by demonstrations of the Spot robot, which Nielsen said his team named “Sparky.” With a Levatas employee at the controls, Sparky seemed to mingle with guests before the presentation, walking through the crowd gathered in the foyer outside of the Cohen Pavilion’s Gimelstob Ballroom and posing for photos.
Here are five things to know about the curious yellow and black robot that stole the show, and the local technology that helps Spot achieve its goals.
The Spot robot uses Levatas’ “cognitive inspection platform” and 16 cameras to scan the world around it, capturing pictures and videos that help the robot look for anything that might be unsafe or not operating properly. Those anomalies might include temperature changes, leak detection and PPE compliance. Boston Dynamics developed Spot to, in part, remove humans from dangerous industrial situations, something with which Levatas’ AI platform assists by evaluating things like temperature and pressure gauges.
The robot has four legs that can move independently to navigate difficult terrain like gravel, grass, rocks and hills, Nielsen said. The robot is just under 4 feet long, and stands about 2 feet tall. It can move at a speed of about 5 feet per second.
Levatas over the summer announced it would be Boston Dynamics’ first certified technology partner. “That’s a big deal. That’s a big validation for us,” Nielsen said. “You can think of it like we’re the calculator app on the iPhone. You get the iPhone, you don’t have to use the calculator app, but it comes with it. So our business is growing globally, in many ways thanks to that partnership with Boston Dynamics.”
Spot is the first Boston Dynamics robot to be available for commercial customers.
Boston Dynamics recently used some AI models, including Chat GPT, to have Spot serve as a tour guide of their facility. In a video posted to Boston Dynamics’ YouTube channel in October, Boston Dynamics’ staff explains how the robot – decked out in a variety of outfits, including a small cowboy hat and a tiny yellow hard hat – when equipped with certain programming and prompts can interact with humans with a variety of personalities.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: This Boston Dynamics robot uses Palm Beach County tech to do its job
