Photo: Craig F. Walker/Boston Globe
Research scientist Hen-Wei Huang talked about Spot the robot during a demonstration at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
When Boston Dynamics first launched its robot dog, people regarded it more as a toy with fancy tricks than as a serious partner in the working world.
Then came coronavirus.
As Hiawatha Bray reports at the Boston Globe, the robot’s remarkable agility is one reason it has become useful for screening potential Covid-19 victims safely.
Bray writes, “At Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the first encounter a potentially infected person might have is not with a doctor or nurse swathed in protective gear, but with a talking, animal-like robot that looks like it might have wandered off the set of ‘Star Wars.’
“Spot, the agile walking robot from Waltham-based Boston Dynamics, gained Internet notoriety for showing off its dance moves on YouTube. But now it’s going to work in the real world, striding into the danger zone, armed only with an iPad. The robot is posted just outside the hospital, not so much as a sentinel, but as an intake worker that will help doctors safely interview people who fear they may have been infected with the coronavirus. …
“The yellow-and-black Spot robot, which resembles a large dog, is positioned inside a big white tent set up in front of the hospital’s main entrance as a triage area for potential COVID-19 cases. It is fitted with an iPad that displays a physician located safely inside the hospital who can use the device’s camera to see the patient’s physical condition. The doctor can talk to the patient through the built-in microphone and a mounted speaker, asking standard diagnostic questions.
“The physician is also able to remotely control Spot, directing the machine to move around for a better perspective of the patient. …
‘Most people have been very excited to be interacting with this robot and mostly see it as something that is cool and fun,’ [said emergency room doctor Farah Dadabhoy].
“Michael Perry, Boston Dynamics’ vice president of business development, said that as early as February the company began receiving inquiries from hospitals worldwide. Was it possible, they asked, to use a Spot robot to conduct triage interviews? …
“Many had set up their COVID triage areas outdoors, on lawns or in parking lots. On such uneven surfaces, ‘traditional robotics doesn’t make sense,’ he said. ‘We need something that can handle this difficult terrain.’ …
“Doctors at the Brigham had also been looking into automated triage. In cooperation with engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they worked on remote diagnostic sensors, but they needed a robot to carry them. So in March they reached out to Boston Dynamics.
“The result was a specially modified Spot, featuring the iPad and a little carrying pouch mounted near the robot’s ‘tail.’
“There’s nothing flashy about the pouch, but it’s quite practical. It allows Spot to deliver small items such as bottled water to infected patients, without the need to send in a nurse. Personnel can’t approach a COVID-infected patient, even for something as simple as giving him a bottle of water, without putting on safety gear. … With the medical version of Spot, health care workers can just put the bottle in the pouch and have it marched over to the patient. And the moisture-resistant robot is designed to be sanitized easily.
“The current version of Spot is only good for conducting interviews. But the Brigham will soon deploy an upgraded model with cameras that can measure a patient’s respiration rate and body temperature, with no need to make physical contact. …
The company said it is giving its medical hardware and software designs at no charge to any robotics company that cares to use them. Perry said Boston Dynamics has already had talks with a Canadian maker of wheeled robots.
Read more at the Globe, here.
Spot the Robot Dog in an earlier career as a YouTube dancing sensation.
Awww, now i want to meet Spot even though he has better dance moves than me.
Quite a flair for it!
Excellent! Looks like a smart idea 👍
People are really thinking all the time about this crisis and how to make some aspect of it better.
All right. This is cool.
LOL. You make it sound like you are hard to please, but if your history of nice comments is any indication, you really aren’t!
I was sincere when I wrote that I thought the dog was cool. Actually, very cool. Hard to tell the tone in a message sometimes. And in Maine, “all right” emphasizes “cool.” Hope this explanation makes a vague kind of sense.
Love it!
In fact, I was even considering a Maine “wowsah.”
Deb from https://abearsthimble2.wordpress.com/ writes, “Never enjoyed doctors visit, but almost tempted to go just to see Spot in action.😀”
Better wait till Spot gets more ordinary assignments, Deb. Right now he’s just for coronavirus screening, and you don’t want any of those symptoms!
How the robots are helping us to fight with Coronavirus! #Artificial_Intelligence. https://darktechprince.wordpress.com/2020/05/13/how-the-robots-are-helping-us-to-fight-with-coronavirus-artificial_intelligence/
Thanks.