Queen’s University’s Ingenuity Labs has a new 4-legged lab member: Spot robot from Boston Dynamics. Check out a short video of the “unboxing” of Spot, as well as watch the robot show off some of its’ skills. Video and write-up here. We reached out to NCRN P.I. and Queen’s Professor Joshua Marshall, as well as NCRN Distal Fellow and Queen’s Professor Amy Wu, for their comments: 

Joshua Marshall: “Ingenuity Labs is very excited to have a Spot robot as part of our robot lineup.  The collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of our research institute, which focuses on applied AI and robotics, means that there are number of applications and affiliated researchers waiting to try out Spot to solve problems in construction site management, co-bots in healthcare and other human-robot application domains, as well as for mapping and reconnaissance in challenging and unstructured environments.  We’ve also got a couple of smaller quadruped robots on the way!  We are also open to collaborating with other NCRN members who might like to access a quadruped robot for their research.” 

Amy Wu: “Having watched the increasing capability of Boston Dynamic quadrupeds from when I first started research to now… receiving the Spot robot is one culmination of robot dreams! While I won’t be allowed to modify its underlying locomotion, Spot is an excellent platform for my interest in human-robot interaction as well as for exciting collaborative research opportunities. My students have already enjoyed testing some of its limits of stability by having Spot walk on uneven surfaces, stepping up and down loading carts, and balancing on shifting ground surfaces. The robot seems to work as robustly and quickly out of the box as advertised. We are looking forward to all the research projects with Spot.”