Smart home for robotic dog Spot

After successful deployment of Percepto’s Sparrow drone for a number of years, Florida Power & Light is one of the first companies to showcase the integration of Spot along with other robots for truly autonomous outdoor remote inspection as part of their hurricane recovery plan. The robots are managed by Percepto’s Autonomous Inspection and Monitoring (AIM) platform.

The AIM software controls open and closure of the Base without the need for on-site staff to man the robot, safeguarding the robot while it charges in between missions. Percepto have applied the same any-weather approach used for their hurricane-tested drone-in-a-box to create a safe and weather-proof enclosure for Boston Dynamics’ Spot, allowing the robot to be deployed at any substation independently under all weather conditions from desert heat to winter snow storms. 

Spot is equipped with Percepto’s dual payload of 4K and thermal cameras, as well as Percepto’s onboard module. This enables live streaming during missions via secure LTE connection, not limited by Wi-Fi coverage.

“Percepto are proud to build upon our autonomous inspection offering that began with Sparrow, the most widely deployed drone-in-a-box in the world. The Base for Spot uses the same sophisticated and trusted AIM software to integrate remote autonomous inspections from the sky to the ground, inside and out, for a holistic and accurate picture in real time,” said Dor Abuhasira, CEO and Co-founder Percepto. “A team of inspection robots on site without the need for human supervision is the future of safer, more reliable inspection and we are excited to add further solutions to our offering.”

“Early this year, we released a charging dock for Spot, unlocking the opportunity for customers to deploy remote inspection solutions with Spot. The Percepto Base for Spot widely expands the potential use cases for Spot by offering superb protection from the elements,” said Michael Perry, Vice President of Business Development at Boston Dynamics. “The enclosure, combined with Percepto AIM, provides our mutual clients the ability to automatically and autonomously deploy Spot in isolated but vital locations regardless of the weather conditions.”

Percepto AIM integrates robots for fully autonomous inspection and monitoring. The Percepto Base for Spot, is the first to join the array of AIM integrated robots: together with the Percepto Sparrow drone. Percepto’s Fortune 500 customers, including Verizon and Enel, can manage the fleet of robots autonomously with an inspection working as follows:

• Request information about any asset of interest on their site, aggregating all data collected to date from bird’s eye drone level or from the ground. 
• If a deeper look is needed from the ground level, AIM will assign Spot. Day or night, Spot will launch out of its base, autonomously.
• Spot will capture the information according to the nature of the mission - so it knows where to go in the facility, what to capture and at what angle.
• The information is streamed in real-time over cellular networks.
• Upon return to the base Spot will be “let in” for safeguarding and charging, and the information collected will be uploaded to AIM in HD.
• At the next step AIM will analyze the information, generate reports: issues found, mapping, measured temperatures and other insights - depending on the nature of the mission and the requested information.