It’s been a little over a year since Spot graduated from our early adopter program and was released for sale. Our early adopters helped us answer the question, “Can robots handle the real world?” Our customers’ experience with Spot over the past year has answered a follow up question, “Where is Spot adding value?”

Over the past year, hundreds of users have demonstrated how Spot can be used to keep people safe and to improve productivity and efficiency in site operations. Our customers and partners developed integrations that let Spot go further and do more. Here’s just some of what Spot has accomplished in the past year.

HAZARDOUS INSPECTIONS

Spot offered visibility in hazardous locations—underground, in electrified sub-stations, in nuclear plants, and more—with the advanced mobility to go where wheeled robots and drones cannot. 

RMUS and UAS worked with operators at Kidd Creek Mine to test Spot in the deepest base metal mine in the world. Spot helps protect human workers by creating distance between them and the potential hazards being inspected. Watch the interview.

UKAEA deployed Spot within the New Safe Confinement area at Chernobyl, with a specially developed radiation detection payload for robotic inspection. Experts hope that the robot will be used during the deconstruction work of Chernobyl’s Sarcophagus to routinely evaluate the evolving radiation and contamination hazards.  Spot’s four small “paws” mean little contact with ground and improved navigation – major advantages over wheeled or tracked robots. Watch the webinar.

National Grid tested Spot at a substation outside of Boston. One use case had Spot inspecting a high-voltage facility the size of a soccer field where no humans can go during operation. Maintenance shutdowns are extremely costly, so National Grid hopes  Spot’s routine inspections can help avoid downtime and better plan maintenance activities. Read the full story.

CONSTRUCTION SITE MONITORING

Spot automated accurate, frequent data capture to provide comprehensive jobsite visibility and allow customers to act on data insights. 

Foster + Partners is a world-renowned architecture firm, known for producing iconic building designs. They are using Spot for construction site monitoring and scanning of existing conditions to support renovation projects. Read the full story.

Brasfield & Gorrie, a self-performing contractor based in Alabama, used Spot’s API to create a new workflow for 360-degree video capture of interiors for continuous site monitoring. This workflow marries aerial data capture and ground data capture with Spot in a common data environment using DroneDeploy software. Read the full story.

REMOTE INSPECTION

With both autonomous self-charging and teleoperation capabilities, Spot served as eyes and ears on the ground, conducting routine inspections in remote locations.

Aker BP sent Spot offshore, working with our partner Cognite to monitor operations. The  COVID pandemic created an urgent need to support remote offshore operations via robotics and technology. Watch the video.

bp sent Spot nearly 200 miles offshore to its Mad Dog rig, with the goal of remotely inspecting hard-to-reach areas to avoid the risk and expense of sending humans into these difficult environments. On the rig, Spot will take on the task of routine facility inspections, including reading gauges and listening for noise anomalies in machinery. Read the full story.

Today Spot is up-and-running at hundreds of locations across the globe—from construction sites and electric utilities to mines and universities. Spot explores, inspects, dances, and delivers. Our customers are proving Spot is more than a tool, but also a valuable teammate. Here’s to a year with Spot!