Spot walks past its robot siblings. (Photo : Boston Dynamics)
Engineering and robotics design company Boston Dynamics has built a new robot "dog" named Spot that is apparently an expert at keeping its balance.
A video shows Boston Dynamics employees repeatedly kicking the robot, which doesn't topple over but remains standing on its four mechanical feet. The 160 pound bot can run with its human companion and easily climb up and down a slope.
Spot seems to have been designed for jobs such as search and rescue or scouting. Its lighter weight compared to Boston Dynamics' other huge robots gives Spot the ability to walk much faster.
The video demonstrates that Spot has great stability and does a good job of recovering from a momentary loss of balance after being kicked, qualities needed in military missions.
Spot is a tinier version of the famous BigDog, a 240 pound quadruped robot designed to lug heavy loads such as weapons and ammunition for the U.S. military. The video also shows Spot and BigDog walking together, according to The Guardian.
BigDog is a dynamically stable quadruped robot built in 2005 by Boston Dynamics. It's three feet long and stands 2.5 feet tall. Boston Dynamics describes BigDog as the most advanced rough-terrain robot on Earth
Boston Dynamics, which was bought by Google in 2013, has made great strides in designing quadruped and biped robots. Its biped robot, Atlas, was shown in another following BigDog into the wild. Atlas can walk for up to an hour on just battery power.
