boston dynamics' robot dog spot just got an extra arm

the internet’s favorite robot dog — spot — is getting a new and upgraded family member, boston dynamics announced yesterday. dubbed enterprise spot, this robot is self-charging, includes a web-based remote operations software, and most importantly, it now features an extra arm that extends its ability to perform autonomous, remote inspections and data collection, while enabling it to perform manual tasks.

‘since first launching spot, we have worked closely with our customers to identify how the robot could best support their mission critical applications,’ said robert playter, CEO of boston dynamics. ‘our customers want reliable data collection in remote, hazardous, and dynamic worksites. we developed the new spot products with these needs in mind, and with the goal of making it easy to regularly and remotely perform critical inspections, improving safety and operations.’

in order to support long, remote deployments, spot enterprise comes equipped with self-charging capabilities and a dock, allowing it to perform longer inspection tasks and data collection missions with little to no human interaction. in addition to the basic capabilities that the base spot robot offers, spot enterprise leverages upgraded hardware for improved safety, communications, and behavior in remote environments. these upgrades expand the range that autonomous missions can cover, extend WiFi support, add flexibility to spot’s payload ports, and enable users to quickly offload large data sets collected during the robot’s mission.

as for the arm addition, it is equipped to operate through both semi-autonomous actions and telemanipulation. it can manually or semi-autonomously grasp, lift, carry, place, and drag a wide variety of objects. it is also capable of manipulating objects with constrained movement and can open and close valves, pull levers and turn handles and knobs in coordination with its body to open standard push and pull doors.