Boston Dynamics Spot robot may not be able to establish a foothold within the industry. However, it can still entertain the public.This week, the company released a video showing Spots performing a choreographed dance to celebrate the recent acquisition of Hyundai of the Massachusetts-based tech company.Seven Spots demonstrated their skillful movement to IONIQ Im on It by K-pop sensation BTS.Boston Dynamics claimed that the robots' ability to avoid bumping into each other during the dance performance was due to their programming and careful positioning, rather than Spots built in obstacle avoidance intelligences.Eric Whitman, Boston Dynamics roboticist, said that there were many challenges in integrating the vision of our choreographer who is used to working with human dancers into our software. Everything had to be planned out and scripted perfectly. Robots have an advantage over humans in that their work is repeatable. They also have the disadvantage of needing to be told every detail. They don't improvise.Spot isn't the only one who has been seen performing its moves. It was seen performing moves to Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson three years ago, while it was also seen dancing to Do You Love Me by The Contours in an end of the year video featuring other Boston Dynamics robots.Boston Dynamics markets its robotic quadruped, which can be used in many industries, away from the dance floor. Semi-autonomous Spot costs $74,500. However, its advanced skills and ability for configuration for different roles have led some companies to take Spot for an evaluation. Ford has used Spot to map one of their facilities and Aker BP in Norway, where it was used for data collection and inspection.At the end of last summer, SoftBank announced that it was going to buy Boston Dynamics. The deal closed in June. Boston Dynamics will now collaborate with Hyundai to create cutting-edge robotics that can be used for advanced mobility, manipulation, vision, and other capabilities.Recommendations of Editors
