New York Fire Department Purchases 2 'Spot' Units
Boston Dynamics' quadrupedal robot ''Spot'' will be put into operation at firefighting sites in the United States.
According to the New York Times on March 17, the New York Fire Department (FDNY) signed a contract with Boston Dynamics to purchase two Spot units. The canine robot is an 84 cm-tall, 110 cm-long robot loaded with a 360-degree thermal imaging camera, and can move freely on rough terrain with its four legs. The price was reported to be US$75,000.
This will not be the first time the U.S. fire department will put a robot to work. In 2014, it bought ‘‘Super Droid’’ powered by a caterpillar. However, the robot was unable to move on stairs or debris.
Hyundai Motor Co. set up a robotics team in 2018. One year later, it opened the Robotics Lab at the Uiwang Research Center in Gyeonggi Province. In 2021, it completed the acquisition of Boston Dynamics, which developed the Spot.
Boston Dynamics’ robots include the ''Atlas,'' a humanoid robot that can walk upright in addition to the Spot. In June of last year, a video of the Spot dancing with BTS became viral.