
Boston Dynamics prepares to launch its first commercial robot - jonbaer
https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/5/18653710/boston-dynamics-first-commercial-robot-spot-demo-amazon-remars-conference-marc-raibert
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demarq
I really hope they go the DJI route. I think general purpose advanced
technologies like this often struggle and die in the industrial sector. i.e
they have to have predefined purpose and be very good at one thing.

The consumer market however are exploratory buyers who'll purchase these and
only then try and find uses for them.

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jcims
There's a pretty good talk here with Marc Raibert that helps convey their
thinking about Spot Mini as a platform.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBt2aTjCNmI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBt2aTjCNmI)

Always appreciate Marcs candor, he never really seems to sugarcoat anything.

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apo
The surprising thing here is that after all of those videos showing astounding
robotic feats after all of these years, this is the first product release from
the company.

From the article:

> Spot is currently being tested in a number of “proof-of-concept”
> environments, Boston Dynamics’ CEO Marc Raibert told The Verge, including
> package delivery and surveying work. And although there’s no firm launch
> date for the commercial version of Spot, it should be available within
> months, said Raibert, and certainly before the end of the year.

BD seems less like a standalone company and more like the R&D arm of a giant
advertising monopoly. Cool gizmos but nothing that's going to find product-
market-fit because that's not part of the plan. There's really no focus on a
customer here at all.

This would seem to present an opportunity to a small, nimble competitor
focused on a specific customer group.

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alexandros
Boston Dynamics was spun out of Google (sold to SoftBank) years ago. And
before that was primarily a DoD contractor so they didn't need to productize
anything.

~~~
dokem
Boston dynamics spun out of a lab at MIT.

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bko
The article doesn't say anything about battery life. Does anyone know about
how long these robots can operate without recharging and how long it takes to
recharge?

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dbcurtis
i believe 1 hour run time. not sure about charge time.

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franciscop
I wonder how they solved the "upskirt small robot problem"? It seems you can
easily drive through the crowd and see the underwear of those wearing a skirt.
This seems like a very murky and dangerous legal position to be in, and it
depends on each state of the USA and on each country laws are different.

The most realistic solution I thought is to put the cameras high enough so
that this becomes a non-issue.

Source: I made some robots for fun but never put them on the street, and this
was one of my main concerns.

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harperlee
That sound very... japanese?

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franciscop
I do live in Japan, and it is a big issue here

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dokem
We have access to real porn in the US so no one is really going to bother with
videoing up strangers skirts en mass.

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samcday
I know most of the initial applications of Spot are going to be industrial or
law enforcement / military. But I'm sure these are gonna start showing up in
commercial and even retail settings, probably sooner than many of us have
truly considered.

It's kinda weird to think that maybe sometime in the next decade I'm gonna
need to double take as I watch a Spot Mini just casually walk down a street
carrying out some mundane task.

~~~
obituary_latte
It’s strange seeing bots showing up already. Our local grocery chain has
robots - tall, lanky and uncoordinated - rolling around the stores with their
two glowing eyes looking for spills to alert a human to come clean.

The last time I saw one, it was relentlessly circling a scuff mark near the
entrance to the back stockroom. Twenty minutes later as I’m getting ready to
leave, the bot was still there seemingly totally confounded by this dark and
utterly harmless streak on the floor. A nearby employee stocking the shelves
rolled his eyes as he told a fellow shopper of the many tens-of-thousands of
dollars this machine cost.

~~~
samcday
You make a great point. We have a lot of sci-fi that's been conditioning us to
the idea of a world shared with a large cast of robotic members. I'm a geek
who loves those kinds of fantasies. Yet, when I saw that fancy robotic
espresso-maker in SF [1], I still reverted to childlike wonder state :) The
way the robotic arm gives you a cheeky little wave when it's finished making
your coffee is the perfect touch.

[1]: [https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/30/cafe-x-opens-in-san-
franci...](https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/30/cafe-x-opens-in-san-francisco-
bringing-robots-to-the-coffee-shop/)

~~~
amelius
Most of sci-fi paints a dark picture about a future with robots, though, and
perhaps rightfully so.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18300084](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18300084)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HipTO_7mUOw&vl=en](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HipTO_7mUOw&vl=en)

~~~
erikpukinskis
Indeed and perhaps wrongfully so as well.

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amelius
Curious, how did they implement the kill-switch, which I believe is mandatory
on industrial robots?

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dbcurtis
I believe I have seen a body-mounted E-stop button on the Spot Mini, but I may
not be recalling correctly. In any case, there are OTS wireless-remote E-Stops
that are easy to buy and integrate into a robot like this, and fail-safe. It
isn't a new problem. (I helped integrate a remote E-Stop into a 1000lb mobile
robot -- at that size, remote E-stop is important.)

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slim
the controller looks like an off the shelf chinese gaming console. anybody has
an idea?

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unixhero
This might not end well. Or what do you say Elon?

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wyclif
It's only a matter of time until one of these things kills a person.

~~~
ru999gol
America already has robots that kill civilians including women and children
all the time (drone program), but that doesn't seem to bother most Americans.
I don't see why robots like these, killing children in the middle east (/south
america in the future) will be any different.

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vbezhenar
Is it robots or humans controlling robots? Does this robot differ from gun?
Who pulls the trigger?

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dondawest
It’s humans controlling robots, remotely from places like Minnesota, to kill
women and children in the Middle East. It differs from a gun in its range and
ability to be operated remotely. A human pulls the trigger, but does so while
looking at a screen instead of a human, which makes it a lot easier to kill
without conscience since a drone strike is more analogous to a video game than
a war zone for its remote human operator.

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kartan
It takes time for tech to develop. We have in our homes small simple robot
toys and Roomba-like robots clean our apartments. Each step seems very little
compared with our expectations. But, technology will get with time cheaper,
and easier to use.

Funny thing:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKjCWfuvYxQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKjCWfuvYxQ)

