Boston Dynamics

““The biggest value is Spot’s mobility,” he says. “The nature of its quadruped mobility is a huge benefit for the kinds of environments that we’re working in. Wheeled platforms can only really get us so far when we’re dealing with plants that have stairs and uneven terrain, so that’s a huge, huge value.””

““When I heard that Woodside was working with Boston Dynamics and had decided to deploy Spot robots, that really swayed my decision to come to Woodside,” he says.”

“Every 12 hours, we follow the same path through the plant, and we’re assessing situational awareness. Spot is going to capture things we may not notice or that we’re not always around to see.”

““One of the biggest benefits of the robot-captured images is that they can be used to identify issues before arriving in the field,” said Bruce Hill, Electrical Inspection Coordinator at Woodside. “This means we can bring spares and fix any issues as soon as possible, saving even more time.””

“Spector is able to go and find information. [T]hen we’re able to access that information, run analytics on top of that. So it provides the operator with a detailed view of what they need to do next.”

“A robot taking those pictures on a regular basis, more precisely, is going to give us better measurements. And if robots can work in dangerous conditions and improve safety for human workers, then that’s a big deal.”

“The question we wanted to answer was whether this new technology could help to perform regular data collection with a 360-degree camera. We wanted to see if we could save human workers time, so that they can focus on more strategic jobs.”

“The robot allows for flexible monitoring beyond the limited range of fixed sensors,” said Ki-hwan. “Additionally, Spot is capable of meticulously and accurately inspecting areas that might be missed during manual inspections, playing a crucial role in preventing issues like blast furnace overheating and gas leaks that could affect the entire steel production process.”

“The main hazards are radiant heat and gas from the furnace, but the robot spends less time in one place than a human and moves back and forth to minimize the risk of overheating. Since the Spot robot performs manual tasks in harsh environments on behalf of our employees, their satisfaction has increased, and they can work in safer conditions.”

“The use of Spot at the Simmering power plant has shown the full potential of the agile mobile robot in the energy supply sector. The acceptance of the quadruped robot by the employees was also consistently positive, and further deployments in other power plants are already planned. We therefore see the use of this technology in maintenance and servicing in the energy supply sector as a great opportunity to increase safety for employees and residents—not only in Austria, but throughout Europe and worldwide.”

“Wien Energie expects this to have definite advantages in the course of the generational change and the current shortage of skilled workers in the increasingly difficult search for qualified junior staff.”

“The Energy Dog provides high-tech support at the power station and highlights the innovative drive of Wien Energie. This special device is the first in Europe to be deployed in routine operations in a power plant. The Energy Dog learns from its human colleagues, stores important knowledge and makes everyday operations easier and safer for our personnel. This allows them to focus all their expertise on complex tasks,”

“Spot has fully met our expectations…even during the pilot phase, the Energy Dog detected a steam leak at 400 to 500 degrees.”

“To me, that’s our biggest success so far.”

“I loved driving it in the hallways, going up and down stairs, learning the new features, like coding. It definitely gave me a step up in college.”

“There’s never been a better robot for the classroom than Spot. It’s the gold standard.”

“As soon as we can get the resources, these students do giant things. They have made everything from remote-controlled lawn mowers and solar-powered refrigerators to facial recognition devices and prosthetic hands.”

“The friendships and relationships I formed…were extremely valuable. Meeting and being surrounded by like-minded individuals who looked like me and were passionate about engineering—they served as powerful role models. The engineers I spoke to influenced me to go into mechanical engineering.”

“It’s almost like an extra man helping them out. We can do what we do, but now we got a little support.”

“You know, it’s always reliable, it’s always increasing our productivity, and therefore we’re meeting demands even more.”

“I love it. I think Stretch has improved my whole life. I really do.”

“Arvato is the most technology driven 3PL logistics provider,”

“Seasonal planning is very critical to Arvato operations,”

“The multipicking has really enabled us to achieve higher throughputs, especially with our smaller, lighter cartons,”

“That really showed machine learning and decision-making similar to what a human would do,”