Boston Dynamics, the robotics company owned by Google, has revealed footage of its latest robot: a miniaturised version of its BigDog quadrupedal bot.
Whereas BigDog is a hefty machine built with the eventual goal of operating as a mechanised pack animal for military forces, the new bot, called Spot, is a decidedly more compact affair.
Instead of hauling loads over rugged terrain, Spot the dog instead seems to be aimed at jobs such as search and rescue, or forward scouting.
Its smaller weight gives the ability to nip along the ground at a light jogging pace, and while it still has the BigDog’s unearthly motorised whine, rather than sounding like a swarm of angry hornets, it’s more like a swarm of mildly pissed-off honeybees. Which is progress, of sorts.
Just like BigDog, and the other quadrupedal bots developed by Boston Dynamics, Spot is also remarkably sure-footed. The trial video shows it staying upright despite a few hefty kicks to its side, as well as gently running up and downhill.
In a first for the company, the video also shows how they operate in pairs, with one Spot gently nudging another out of the way as they both struggle up a steep slope.
As well as the core herd of quadrupeds put together by Boston Dynamics, the firm has also shown strong progress in its bipedal robot, Atlas. That robot, most recently demonstrated in January, is now able to follow BigDog out into the wild: for the first time, it is able to walk for up to an hour using just battery power.
