After several years of work, Boston Dynamics has finally released its Spot robot dog. Already used in several fields, the robot has recently been the subject of a collaboration with the French start-up Shark Robotics. The goal? Market a new, more mobile and efficient decontamination robot.
As of mid-June 2020, the Spot robot dog is officially on sale in the United States. Prior to this, Bonston Dynamics had tested renting its machine to businesses. Thus, we have seen this robot participating in police operations in Massachusetts (United States) or even hired on an oil platform in Norway. As explained in a press release published on October 7, 2020, Boston Dynamics has collaborated with the French start-up Shark Robotics . The goal is to make the Spot robot a decontamination robot. Obviously, this collaboration is part of the fight against the current coronavirus pandemic (see video at the end of the article).
You should know that in this fight, robots are increasingly called upon. These include disinfecting hospitals , station platforms, car parks, shopping malls, etc. In April 2020, we mentioned a French prototype of a decontamination robot. Developed by Shark Robotics, this Rhyno Protect decontamination (RPD) is capable of decontaminating an area of no less than 20,000 m² in three hours . It can also purify the air at the rate of 100 m3 per hour and kill 99% of germs in a single pass.
The RPD robot has a micro-spray system liquid disinfectant for surfaces. It also has an air purification system using a UV-C lamp, capable of killing pathogens in suspension. Boston Dynamics therefore spotted the French prototype and entrusted Shark Robotics with the adaptation of its module decontamination for the Spot robot. The objective was to obtain a new robotic decontamination solution that was autonomous, agile and very mobile. You should know that Spot can indeed reach hard-to-reach areas for the RPD.
Thus, Shark Robotics now markets a "Spot anti-Covid-19" solution. The start-up promises that this solution is able to fight the coronavirus in all types of environments. In the field, this new Spot robot can decontaminate up to 2,000 m² in 15 minutes only. In addition, the latter can be coupled to the RPD robot either in remote control or autonomously.
Finally, let's remember that this is not the first time that Boston Dynamics' Spot robot has taken part in the fight against the pandemic. In May 2020, one of these robots traveled through Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park in Singapore to broadcast a pre-recorded message to visitors to enforce social distancing.
