You might not have expected to see the robot dog Spot from Boston Dynamics doing soon: herding sheep on a rugged mountain-side of New Zealand.
The somewhat surreal sequence is part of a promotional video showcasing the promise of Spot in the agriculture industry. It also features footage of Spot crop testing and rugged terrain clambering. Do they roll in the grass?
The video was compiled by Rocos, a robotics software firm that works with Boston Dynamics to explore how its droid collection can be remotely controlled. The idea is to send out bots like Spot on missions while a human operator sits on the other side of the world.
This could mean, for farmers, having a robot monitor fields around the clock, checking in on crop growth or ripening fruit, all while being operated remotely. Bots like these can walk, roll along, or fly, and they can also be equipped with sensors of all kinds to assess the environment around them.
"By connecting robots to the cloud, we can help them combine a cloud software layer with robotics to achieve physical automation at scale," says Rocos CEO David Inggs. "Our customers are augmenting their human workforces to automate physical processes that are often dull, dirty, or dangerous."
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What can Spot do?
If you've never met Spot before, for several years now, the dog-like robot has been entertaining and unnerving us. Spot also keeps getting more capable and smarter. One of their new tricks is that they can open doors.
These beasts of metal can also work together, with a squad of 10 spots recently seen pulling a truck. The robots use cameras and on-board sensors to work out where they are and where they are going, with human operators pre-programming instructions.
Spot robodog is also on patrol in Singapore in the last couple of weeks, reminding people to practice social distance and keep a healthy distance from each other while out and about in parks.
The Massachusetts police are currently using Spot as a "mobile remote surveillance tool," too.
Not too long ago, the development of Boston Dynamics specialists helped doctors at an American hospital communicate remotely with patients infected with coronavirus infection.
When it comes to herding sheep, we just get a few seconds of video, so it doesn't look like Spot is being fully trained just yet. However, it definitely doesn't have the pace needed to replace a sheepdog entirely.
However, robots like Spot could find themselves in agriculture and other industries in many ways in the coming years. They may even evolve to look a bit more friendly, too.
"The automation of agriculture is changing the way farmers work, increasing efficiency of the world's food production for an ever-growing human population," concludes the promo video uploaded by Rocos.
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Robots are not entirely new for herding livestock. Back in 2013, Sydney, Australia, robotics researchers tested a real-life robotic rustler called Rover that successfully rounded up cattle from a field into a nearby dairy.