See Spot Revolutionize

If you’re as obsessed with revolutionary technology as we are, you’ve probably heard of Spot.

The latest innovation from Boston Dynamics, Spot is a four-legged robot dog designed to help businesses with everything from remote monitoring to safety inspections, or just about any other task you could dream up for an automated quadruped. It’s been generating a lot of buzz with technology influencers like Adam Savage and Marques Brownlee.

And if you’re familiar with Loupe, you know we’re the new owners of one of the first commercially available models.

Loupe & Boston Dynamics: A Doggone Good Pair

In fact, Loupe is excited to announce that we are now a proud Boston Dynamics partner and will be adding Spot to our suite of industry-leading hardware products!

Spot has seemingly limitless applications for businesses — it can be operated remotely, or it can learn custom routes and follow autonomous missions. But while Spot is an innovative machine, it can’t necessarily be used out of the box. Users need to know how to develop software to run and customize Spot for specific tasks.

That’s where a technical integration channel partner like Loupe comes in.

We take complicated, highly engineered products and integrate them in unique ways to make them useful and productive in real-world applications. A product like Spot is a perfect new ingredient for Loupe. 

Why Robot Dogs?

With its canine appearance and human-like movements, Spot has experienced its fair share of internet fame. Videos like the one of Spot dancing to Uptown Funk have gone viral on the Boston Dynamics YouTube channel.

To be sure, Spot is cute and entertaining. But at Loupe, we also recognize it for the machine capabilities and business applications it introduces.

Critical tasks don’t always occur on a neatly organized factory floor — they pop up in the natural world and weave throughout existing infrastructure. Wheeled and tracked robots are limited by stairs, gaps, and cables, and drones are severely limited by payloads and endurance. A legged robot like Spot can deftly maneuver through rocky trails, staircases, catwalks, doors, or cluttered passages to get its work done.

This level of mobility, dexterity, and intelligence means Spot can go nearly anywhere people can, and even where they cannot — like remote or hazardous environments. Spot can walk up to three miles per hour, climb terrain, avoid obstacles, and see 360 degrees.

Suffice it to say, we’re excited about the possibilities.

What Can Spot Do?

As always, our answer to a question like this is, “What couldn’t it do?” With the right imagination and some elbow grease, the opportunities are nearly endless.

• Telepresence: Rather than asking our team to sit in a hot building in a faraway town inspecting machines, we can affix Spot with high-resolution cameras and allow engineers to perform inspections remotely from thousands of miles away.
• Autonomous Inspections: Likewise, we can even integrate sensor information into data analysis tools to take measurements, read analog gauges, and automate the inspection process.
• Site Documentation: In construction, Spot can improve data capturing and use laser scanners to create digital twins of worksites and document progress.
• Safety Hazard Detection: For uncontrolled environments, Spot can detect abnormal operating noises like ticking or whirring, or note equipment with degraded performance. Thermal cameras can identify issue-indicating hot spots, or other sensors can detect gas or water leaks without risk to humans or animals.

And these are just the beginning; new applications are arising as quickly as revolutionary minds can conceive them.

Fortunately, Loupe’s process is purpose-built for just such an occasion. Our approach to every New Machine Concept is to start with the question “What if?” — turning exciting back-of-the-napkin ideas into workable blueprints. Our Ship in Six methodology takes that a step further by delivering a complete product or feature in a single, six-week sprint. In fact, our entire method is designed to maximize the full potential of technology like Spot — in a way that is efficient, effective, and (always) revolutionary.

What’s Next?

As an official Boston Dynamics partner and distributor of Spot robots, Loupe is excited to be on the forefront of this groundbreaking technology and eager to help Spot solve new and more complex challenges.

What could Spot make possible for your business? If your curiosity is piqued, let’s talk.

What would you like to see Spot do? Pour a cup of coffee? Shoot a basketball? In our next season of Live at Loupe, we’ll put Spot (and our engineers) to the test. Tell us on LinkedIn!