Year
2023
File Attachment
Abstract
"Spot" is an agile mobile quadruped (four-legged) robot made by Boston Dynamics. Spot has an integrated arm for manipulation tasks and can navigate terrain with unprecedented mobility, allowing for automation of routine inspection tasks and safe, accurate, and frequent data capture. Spot can navigate stairs, gravel and rough terrain as well as indoor industrial enviornments. Spot is easy to use in contaminated enviornments. Spot is presently deployed as a tool to assist in environments including: nuclear reactor decommissioning projects, contaminated laboratory and government facilities, and by military for radiation mapping and material retrieval. Spot can be fitted with any sensor or detection payload ranging from pancake and survey detectors to gamma spectrography systems. Spot can thus deliver enhanced radiation visualizations and isotope identification. Spot can be used via wifi or with select radios offer robust communications in hardened environments. Spot can be teleoperated and conduct autonomous radiation mapping operations. Spot can go up and down steps, and its integrated arm is able to open doors. With basic training, operators can drive Spot in a suit and gloves. Payloads integrate with Spot’s onboard application programming interface (API) to relay mapping data back to the user, allowing Spot to conduct repeatable mission summaries. Spot was tested in high-radiation environments and operated without loss of functionality in gamma fields in excess of 250 rem per hour, and with a total absorbed gamma dose exceeding 420 rem, so Spot can remain in radiation zones and operate autonomously—or be teleoperated—for regular operations. Operators can choose the frequency with which they want to conduct radiation mapping exercises without budget and personnel challenges limiting their capabilities. Spot moves with its sensor payloads onboard, thus traveling to radiation, allowing teleoperators to navigate efficiently and observe or manipulate via live-stream. Operators can extend Spot’s capabilities by adding on advanced computer vision models and AI and machine learning algorithms to study historical behavior to anticipate radiation alerts. In addtion to Spot's applications for radiological and nuclear enviornments, Spot can be equipped with countless payloads. Users currently leverage Spot for situational awareness with cameras, thermal, and LiDAR, or enteriprise asset management capabilities using acoustic and vibration sensors.