Or maybe this is an urban delivery robot. The big question that we have now (besides all of the other big questions about how this machine works and what it can do) is why does this robot exist? As in, what was it built for? Back when Boston Dynamics was primarily working for the military, it was easier to discuss potential applications, but now that the company is part of Google, maybe the reason is just “because we can, and it’s cool.” The robot’s adaptability is a huge asset here, though: since it’s so dynamically stable, it doesn't need to calculate exact foot placement in advance, it can just go. The Velodyne isn’t mounted in a way that it can see what’s immediately in front of the robot, so for autonomous operation, it’ll need to rely on something else for close-in sensing. Also tucked away where Spot’s head would be (if it had a head) looks like the same sort of vision sensors that Atlas has, but it’s a bit hard to see. As far as sensors go, the baby Velodyne is certainly obvious.You know, they call themselves Boston Dynamics for a reason. Like, it doesn’t care that there are stairs there, it just sees a steep and bumpy slope, and then goes up stairs like it would any other terrain. I sort of think that Spot maybe doesn’t really know how to go up stairs. Spot certainly is agile: it seems to have no problem with hills, or even stairs.So maybe Spot’s legs are designed for agility? Or maybe it doesn’t matter at all. If I had to guess based on nothing at all, I might speculate that the LS3 leg configuration is for payload, and the Wildcat leg configuration is for speed. We’ve heard that the legs on these robots can be placed with their knees facing either backwards or forwards, but it’s (maybe) worth pointing out that Wildcat has forward facing knees ( Cheetah does too), and LS3 has a mix. Spot doesn’t necessarily look like it’s built specifically for speed or payload capacity, suggesting that it’s not the next generation of either LS3 or Wildcat.( UPDATE: Boston Dynamics confirmed that “Spot’s power system shares some elements from the new Atlas power system.”) However, they managed to make the most recent update of Atlas run on batteries that also power a pump, so maybe Spot is leveraging the same technology. We’d be surprised if this didn’t have a significant impact on the range, endurance, and/or performance (especially payload capacity) of Spot relative to some of their other robots. It’s still hydraulic, but it’s using a battery to power the hydraulic pump instead of a gas engine.
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