Robotic dog ‘Spot’ shown off on Capitol Hill as lawmakers continue AI, robotics talks

WASHINGTON (7News) — Lawmakers got to interact with robots on Capitol Hill and recently Boston Dynamics brought its robotic dog Spot to an event centered on robotics.

Holly Yanco is a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, where she’s helping train Spot to operate onboard Navy ships.

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“We simulate shipboard motor movements in my lab, to see how can we have these robots work in these rocking environments,” she said.

7News’ Lindsey Mastis covers artificial intelligence and got to interact with Spot. It was able to retrieve a screwdriver and hand the tool to Lindsey.

“We’re really good at looking at scenes, understanding them very well and know what we need to do to fix something. The robot is good at fetching a screwdriver,” she said.

It’s more of a menial task, but Spot can also help with dangerous situations.

Brendan Schulman with Boston Dynamics said most people don’t realize Spot is being used at nuclear power plants to assess leaks and help decommission sites.

“We’ve had a robot exposed to so much radiation, the robot’s no longer operational. So there’s a robot in a nuclear power plant that isn’t going to be used anymore. Much better than sending a person into that situation,” he said.

In another case, Schulman said Spot was shot three times while responding to a barricade situation.

“We had a robot take the bullets instead of a person,” he said.

There are some restrictions, especially when it comes to the military. Boston Dynamics prohibits customers from weaponizing its robots.

“We do have Defense Department customers, and they are engaged in using robots in a way that protects life,” Schulman said. “For example, explosive ordnance disposal, where you might have a roadside IED, they send the robot in to investigate and defuse the bomb, rather than a person in a protective suit.”

Not only is Boston Dynamics making a point to show the technology on Capitol Hill, but they’re meeting with United Nations officials to call on them to ban the weaponization of robots globally.