Seeking a more agile robotic method of safely identifying incendiary devices, officials from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office recently previewed Spot. The high-tech safety device was auditioned at the Montgomery County Fire Academy in Conshohocken, reported Justin Heinze for the Norristown Patch.

Spot’s demo was run by representatives from his design firm, Boston Dynamics in Waltham, Massachusetts. In showing what he could do, Spot climbed stairs, opened doors, and picked up objects.

His 360-degree camera can safely allow law enforcement officers to safely peer into tight spaces to determine the presence of explosives.

“Spot literally ran rings around our conventional bomb robot — still needed for certain heavy-duty tasks. But [he] looks like the wave of the future,” said a member of the sheriff’s office.

The manufacturer has a consumer version of Spot — SpotMini — that it’s marketing as an aid to people with mobility issues, helping them around the house. SpotMini and a two-legged version (Atlas) have been in development since 1992.

More on Spot is at the Norristown Patch.

_____

Spot is surprisingly agile.