Dogs are indeed the best, whether real or robots. Spot, US firm Boston Dynamics’ dog robot, proves more valuable than one would imagine. Replacing humans is this four-legged contraption working as the latest monitoring operation at the archeological park of Pompeii, Italy. Using its cameras and sensors and well-developed agility, Spot will monitor and protect the site. Spot capable of inspecting ‘even the smallest of spaces, gathering and recording data helpful in planning interventions to fix safety and structural issues. Come nightfall, Spot bounces into actions like most domesticated dogs, patrolling Pompeii or whenever the site is closed to tourists.
Spot provides a live feed for human officials situated off-site, especially across the most challenging routes, gathering and recording data when the site is prone to grave robbers and illegal relic hunters.
Designboom shared, “these smart platforms for data analysis, such as that created by sprint reply, form the necessary basis for making data acquired during such robot inspections usable and accessible for applications at the archaeological park of Pompeii. Often the safety conditions within the tunnels dug by grave robbers are extremely precarious, as a consequence of which the use of a robot could signify a breakthrough that would allow us to proceed with greater speed and in total safety,’ declared director-general Gabriel Zuchtriegel.
At $75,000, Spot is not your average golden retriever. Owing to its multipurpose mobility platform, features of surveying, and data collection, Spot is an excellent pick for not just the archeological park of Pompeii but also other fields like healthcare, security, and perhaps even bomb squads. The tech-pet comes with two batteries, a battery charger, a tablet controller, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, runs Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, and connects directly to the payload port to draw power, and includes Boston Dynamics’ APIs.
