Friday, March 29, 2024

Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot becomes shepherd in New Zealand

Rocos, a New Zealand-based company that also works in robotics, has unveiled a new video with the Spot robot from Boston Dynamics to talk about the benefits of its use in agriculture. This time, the machine worked as a shepherd in New Zealand.

As part of a partnership with Boston Dynamics, the company is developing a remote control system for robots. The purpose of the partnership is to develop new ways to assist work on the farms. In addition to herding sheep, Spot robots can assist rural workers during harvesting, inspecting crop yields, and creating real-time terrain maps.

Their system will allow you to specify the nature of behavior from anywhere in the world; the rest will be done by the robots themselves without any additional supervision. The Spot is capable of traversing a wide variety of terrains with agility walking or even using wheels. This robot can be equipped with a series of technologies according to the needs of the site.

In addition to infrared cameras, for example, Spot can also use LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) technology – which performs real-time terrain mapping. Spot navigates rugged environments and feeds the captured data back into existing business systems, wherever they are located.

Such an approach to a robotic farm should help older farmers keep it in order, putting a minimum of effort – for New Zealand, the homeland of Rocos, this is very relevant.

The Boston Dynamics robot has constantly been learning new tricks and is becoming more suitable for use in various fields of human activity since it went on sale last year. Not so long ago, the creation of specialists from Boston Dynamics helped doctors at an American hospital remotely interact with patients infected with coronavirus infection. In addition, Spot was spotted in a park in Singapore, where it was used to remind passers-by of the need to maintain social distance.