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Spot Stuff

#1
Yazata Online
Here's Adam Savage with a Spot Robot that Boston Dynamics gave him for a year to test out.

Intro video with Spot right out of the box.


https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/k7s1sr4JdlI

A more informative video in which Adam shows how to steer Spot and some of the basic autonomy built in.


https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/R-PdPtqw78k

For those (like Elon) who can't get enough Spot, here's a Boston Dynamics marketing video


https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/wlkCQXHEgjA

You can start to see why SpaceX might want a Spot at the Boca launch site. He can traverse rough terrain, go up and down stairs, avoid obstacles autonomously, right himself if he falls over and carry all kinds of visual and IR cameras, methane sniffers and other sensors. Spot's operator can direct him to look to see if valves are closed, if hoses are still connected, if pipes have ruptured and methane is leaking and all kinds of stuff like that. Spot is sealed and can operate in unbreathable atmospheres and shouldn't ignite clouds of methane. (But getting doused with liquid oxygen or nitrogen would probably kill him.) He can even prowl the property when the pad is cleared to detect people coming too close. He has terrain mapping abilities and can learn the layout of new places. So once he's seen a place, the operator can just tell Spot to go to a particular spot and he will figure out what route he wants to take to get there.
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#2
C C Offline
Boston Dynamics doesn't seem to go much for well-defined faces, and when there is something resembling a distinct head it is minimal. That might pertain to the supposed "uncanny valley" problem of Westerners being potentially freaked-out by the appearances of robots.

In the beginning, the more biological (humanoid or animal-like) a robot is, the more favorable the reception to it. But at some point the trend can become too realistic in resemblance to a known organism (human or animal), so that the "uncanny valley" of feeling revulsion kicks in. Then the appearance has to either shift to or roll-back to less perfect mimicry.

BD perhaps seeks a neutral spot, neither overly biological in features nor too non-biological. Japanese culture, OTOH, is contended to be a haven for realistic robots due to its history of mechanical "puppet theater" traditions.

Anyway, it remains to be seen whether or not there really is anything or to the "uncanny valley" hypothesis. It was formulated a long time ago before truly viable, embodied AI was roaming about with robust autonomy in the environment.
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