Spot, the robotic “dog” design from Boston Dynamics, has had a busy pandemic, between counseling patients and enforcing social distancing guidelines. Now, a new partnership with a New Zealand robotics firm is setting up the four-legged automaton for a new line of work: farming.

Technically, the partnership is much bigger than that. Rocos specializes in the remote monitoring and operation of robot fleets. By working together, the capabilities of Boston Dynamics robots like Spot will expand thanks to human operators who can manage their performance from a great distance.

Think of the farming thing as a proof-of-concept. A video released by Rocos shows Spot exploring rough terrain, inspecting crops, and herding sheep – all of which is meant to serve as a demonstration of the various ways remote operation can be used to put robots to work.

“Equipped with payloads like heat, LIDAR, gas and high resolution camera sensors, Spot navigates rugged environments to capture data in real time – feeding this data back into existing business systems, wherever they are located ,” the Rocos news announcement reads, before offering some examples.

“In the energy sector this provides real-time anomaly detection as well as access to historic digital records for comparison. In agriculture, farmers can access information such as more accurate and up-to-date yield estimates. This provides access to a new category of automation, and a safer, more efficient business.”

Automation has been creeping into industrial spaces for many years now and the coronavirus pandemic has only accelerated that shift. As the illness has come for warehouse and assembly line workers, who all tend to operate in close quarters, the question of how and where robots can step in to help has become louder and more pressing.

We were already starting to see robots pop up in supermarkets before the pandemic threat really started having an impact in the United States. Amazon is also reportedly looking at installing robots in its warehouses.

Not everyone is on board with throwing open all the doors to using robots as replacements for human labor, of course. Amazon in particular has faced harsh criticism in recent months for what many have described as unsafe warehouse working conditions. The move toward automation in general seems inevitable, but Amazon’s will face particular scrutiny over any such decision due to the stories that have come out.

Individual company stories aside, the march toward automation continues on. Boston Dyanmics’ partnership with Rocos ought to speed that along, given the capabilities of robots like Spot and all the potential ways remote operation could put them to work.

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Rocos, an Auckland based robot operations software platform, is partnering with US robotics leader Boston Dynamics to provide remote mission design and execution as well as teleoperation functionality, for the famous “Spot” autonomous robots.

As a mobile, durable, and customisable robot, Spot was built by Boston Dynamics to go where other robots cannot. Coupled with the Rocos platform, Spot can now be easily managed from a remote location. Missions can be designed and edited on the fly, and sensor data collected on the mission can be accessed by remote teams.

Spot can also be manually tele-operated to investigate issues, capture new data, or be redirected as required.

“The age of autonomous robots is upon us. We’re working with organizations like Boston Dynamics to help accelerate the adoption of robotics. By connecting robots to the cloud, we can help them combine a cloud software layer with robotics to achieve physical automation at scale. Our customers are augmenting their human workforces to automate physical processes that are often dull, dirty, or dangerous,” Rocos CEO David Inggs said.

The importance of autonomous robots has been highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic where many have been used to encourage social distancing, clean public spaces and hospitals, and even deliver vital medication.

“We’re excited to see Rocos enabling key features for Spot and our industry partners. The industry applications we’re exploring with Rocos will see this important technology create new efficiencies for businesses around the world,” Boston Dynamics VP of Business Development, Michael Perry said.

Boston Dynamics’ Spot navigates rugged environments to capture data in real-time – feeding this data back into existing business systems, wherever they are located. In the energy sector this provides real-time anomaly detection as well as access to historic digital records for comparison.

In agriculture, farmers can access information such as more accurate and up-to-date yield estimates. This provides access to a new category of automation, and a safer, more efficient business.

Through the use of this joint technology, organisations can plan and schedule missions, remotely operate their robots in the exploration of uncharted territory, capture 3D visualisations and other sensor data in their environment, navigate risky or dangerous terrain, and proactively intervene in required situations. All of this possible in either offline or online modes.

In early testing, the Boston Dynamics team based in the US, navigated previously uncharted terrain in New Zealand, remotely accessing Spot through Rocos’ web UI.

“Robotics companies are producing very capable machines for achieving specific tasks. The missing link is a cloud-based platform to connect, monitor and automate the activities of a fleet. With Boston Dynamics and Rocos, organisations can now design, schedule and manage inspection missions remotely,” Inggs said.

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See Spot walk. See Spot sit. See Spot roll over. See Spot run onto a Norwegian oil rig to sniff out lethal gas leaks!

Boston Dynamics’ next-generation robotic device, affectionately nicknamed Spot, will soon be embarking on a new test mission aboard an offshore oil rig for petroleum product producer Aker BP and AI software company Cognite. The newly announced project will be rolled out to test a number of advanced robots and drones on Aker BP’s Skarv installation in the Norwegian Sea later this year.

Aker BP is embarking on this plan to get a “leg up” on the oil industry’s digitalization process to make its operations safer and more effective by challenging Spot’s ability to perform autonomous inspections, monitor systems, detect hydrocarbon leaks, collect data, and self-generate maintenance reports.

“Our vision is to digitalize all our operations from cradle to grave in order to increase productivity, enhance quality, and improve the safety of our employees,” Aker BP’s CEO Karl Johnny Hersvik said in a press release. “Exploring the potential of robotics offshore underpin our digital journey.”

Created as a multi-function mobile platform that can be fully customized according to its clients or owners’ needs, Spot is a nimble quadruped robot equipped with a multi-eyed perception system that includes cameras and 3D sensors used to help navigate obstacles and survey rough terrain, allowing the intelligent machine to mount stairs and step over debris. Its sleek, sturdy legs are powered by 12 custom motors that let it trot along at a top speed of 1.6 meters per second.

“The key to Aker BP and Cognite’s robotics initiative is that it combines industry-leading hardware and software. By ingesting data collected by robots into Cognite Data Fusion, Aker BP engineers will be able to see it in context with data from across the company’s operations and make data-driven decisions that improve efficiency and safety,” said Dr. John Markus Lervik, CEO of Cognite.

Aside for the aforementioned tasks, Spot might also be required to carry out aerial and underwater inspections, provide immediate response to dangerous situations that go unnoticed by traditional automation, and generally complete hazardous work that takes humans safely out of harm’s way, all while providing onshore operators with remote telepresence capabilities on offshore installations.

“We’re excited to see innovative partners such as Cognite validating Spot’s ability to reduce risk to humans and provide value for the energy industry,” said Michael Perry, vice president of business development at Boston Dynamics.

Now if Spot can only be programmed to chase problematic cats off oil and gas platforms, that might be something to truly praise!

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