Spot has probably got to be Boston Dynamics’ most famous and well-known creation to date, and in recent times we’ve started to hear more about it being used in real-life. For example, in 2020 at the start of the pandemic, the Singapore government actually deployed the use of Spot to remind people to socially distance themselves from each other.
Now it looks like Spot has found itself a new job, this time as a factory safety inspector at Hyundai. This is part of a pilot program that Hyundai will be using at the Kia plant in South Korea where it will patrol the factory to look out for things like fire hazards, temperatures, and even be used at night for security patrol.
The version of Spot used by Hyundai has also been slightly modified so that it will come with more sensors and tools, like a thermal camera, LiDAR, more computing resources, and also the ability for factory workers to take control of the robot and use it to monitor specific parts of the factory.
That being said, this is currently a pilot program where Hyundai will be assessing the robot’s effectiveness before deploying it at their other factories. While it is pretty cool, we can’t help but get the vibes of a dystopian future where the robots takeover and force humans to build more robots for them.