Spot The Robotic Dog Has A New Semi-Autonomous Arm

The robotic dog Spot has a powerful new robotic arm designed to function semi-autonomously in a wide array of human environments. Most robotic arms require the user to program and position the arm to pick up an object. Spot's latest upgrade can support people of all levels of robotics experience.
 
Spot can perform impressive tasks with this new arm, like twist a round doorknob handle, jump rope, drag cinderblocks, write with chalk, and autonomously pick and place objects while avoiding obstacles. The robot uses its whole body to support the actions of the arm.

"Modes are built into the interface where you see an object that you want the robot to grab, tap that object on the screen. The robot then uses the depth camera in its gripper to capture a depth map and plan a grasp on its own in real-time," says Zachary Jackowski, Chief Engineer at Boston Dynamics.

Robots like Spot bring growth to the robotics field by surpassing previous work to assist the public with autonomous manipulation of challenging tasks. 

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