Spot for Academia & Research
Accelerate your research and development, enhance student recruitment, and unlock opportunities for new curricula and teaching methodologies with Spot.
A Platform For Innovation
A Platform For Innovation
Spot’s mobility, paired with its open platform for sensing and manipulation, offers the flexibility you need for research and education. With out-of-the-box functionality, Spot can handle its own mobility, autonomy, and navigation while researchers and developers augment the robot in the area of innovation most interesting to them.
The next generation of mobility, sensing, and manipulation is here.
Solution Capabilities
Solution Capabilities
Spot’s features serve research efforts across a wide range of industries - from construction to manufacturing, energy & utilities, oil & gas, and more.
World-Class Mobility
Explore unstructured terrain with unprecedented mobility, going where wheeled robots and drones cannot. Spot cruises over loose gravel, grass, curbs, and stairs by automatically engaging gaits designed to optimize stability.
Unmatched Customizability
Spot can be easily customized for a variety of applications. Our API enables developers to create custom controls and integrations for Spot, while the robot's mounting rails and payload ports are designed to facilitate easy attachment and integration of outside hardware.
Easy to Use
Whether you’re putting Spot to use out of the box with its easy-to-learn tablet controller, or developing a custom application with Spot’s API, we have the resources to support you. Get started with Spot in under an hour, with comprehensive support and training offerings to help you scale.
Meet our Customers
"Construction sites are very compatible with humans. We are bipeds, and so legged robots are more compatible with our environment than wheeled robots. There is no question that Spot can be a helpful piece of equipment in construction."
Kereshmeh Afsari, Assistant Professor, Myers-Lawson School of Construction at Virginia Tech
“We are not developers. We wanted to find ways to use Spot in the mine, but we needed someone to help us realize the idea. The LTU researchers were the ones who were in there rolling up their sleeves. That partnership gave us the confidence to know that we could integrate gas sensors and lidar scanners with the robot, and it really expanded our technical capacity.”
Nikos Petropoulos, Senior Research Engineer, LKAB on working with researchers at LTU
Developer Access Points
Autonomy
Spot comes with Autowalk, a feature that allows users to record and replay autonomous missions that can include actions such as data collection and API callbacks. For even more sophisticated autonomy solutions, developers have access to the broader autonomous navigation API that Autowalk is built on.
Manipulation
The Spot Arm add-on allows the robot to interact with the world around it. Through the intuitive tablet interface or the API, users can choose from manual, semi-automated, or fully automated arm actions, such as maneuvering or inspecting objects with the gripper, and even turning valves, flipping levers, and opening doors.
Sensor Integration
Payloads can add additional sensing, communication, and control capabilities beyond what the base Spot platform provides. Our developer documentation covers the mechanical, electrical, and software interfaces that Spot supports in order for you to customize the robot for your needs.
Data Analysis
Spot’s cameras and sensors collect data that can be processed on-robot through a compute payload or sent off-robot to be processed elsewhere. Integrate third-party computer vision models, enterprise asset management (EAM) systems, and more. Data collected during missions can also be accessed through our remote operation software Scout’s API.
Resources
Webinar
Spot User Group: Academia & Research
Hear how our users are researching autonomous-legged robots for industry-specific applications, exploring human/robot interaction, developing advanced autonomy stacks, experimenting with artificial intelligence and machine learning, and more.
Blog
What Makes an Effective Research Robot?
Researchers look at a range of factors when deciding to work with a robot—from ease of use and maintenance to required functionality and capabilities. But the most important factor for a research robot is that it enables the team to focus on the research.
Blog
What to Do with a Legged Robot in Academia and Research
Spot is supporting developments in advanced technologies, while educating new generations of scientists, technicians, and engineers.
Webinar
Tech Talk: All About Spot's API
Want to learn how Spot customers are developing tailor-made integrations to address unique business challenges? See firsthand how Spot's accessible API enables users.
LEARN more about spot.