Following the days of BigDog, the quadrupedal robots of Boston Dynamics have surprised and repelled us. But while the first, bulky robots never seemed like something we would see in real life.
The company’s newest and biggest creation, Spot, is not only authentic but now for sale. In fact, some people have had it for months already.
More about Spot
Boston Dynamics announced that Spot, earlier known as SpotMini, would be its first commercial product. It is an amazingly impressive and adaptable robotics platform competent in navigating all kinds of environments– Along with communicating with many everyday objects and obstacles.
And while today it is the first day of formal sales, there are already robots out there in use. Boston Dynamics VP of business development Michael Perry stated that last month, they began delivering robots to customers, as a portion of an early adopter program.
The early adopter program is contract-based rather than a direct purchase. However, there is no shortage of consumers who want to have their Spot outright.
How will Spot be used?
The cost of one of the robots ranges, but think tens of thousands of dollars, it isn’t a hobby bot. Some people may need a bare-bones platform onto which they can combine their sensing and communication tech. Others may want a completely functional robot they can plug into their current automation workflow.
But both ways, it will need some work on the part of the consumer. The spot is not going to examine that oil pipeline or watch a facility with the push of a button. It is a great, flexible legged robot platform, but Boston Dynamics is not operating a turn-key service.
Perry mentioned that they are now at a phase where they don’t have to send out 12 engineers with the robot. A lot of businesses want to buy a few of these guys to play around with and test it.
If you are one of those, or maybe a smaller enterprise with more specific goals in mind, you can get in touch with Boston Dynamics and its sales team. Perry mentioned that they have a deluge of people emailing them.
Some are valid applications, but some require Spot as a pet, or to get them a beer from the fridge. It would be exciting to provide them, but they are not quite there yet.
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