The Boston Dynamics robot Spot, the good little soldier of fashion?
Or how Spot, the robot explorer from Boston Dynamics, practices a strange mix of genres, as a deliveryman of Adidas sneakers in the villas of stars and a robotic assistant, during military exercises in Brittany.
By Ludmilla Intravaia
Spot and his acolytes, Atlas and Handle, had already stood out, on December 29, in a video showing the three robots of Boston Dynamics swinging their hips on Do You Love Me, one of the film Dirty Dancing iconic songs, in 1987 (more info in this Boudoir Numérique article). Following this buzz from the American robotics company on the interweb, the talent as dancers of the trio of accomplices was no longer to be demonstrated.
Since then, Spot has decided to play it solo, bringing out its qualities as the ultimate Swiss army knife, in a mix of genres that leaves, let's face it, perplexed. In fact, last February, the canine-inspired quadruped participated in the marketing campaign to launch the collaboration between the sports brand Adidas and the American rapper Pharrell William, Pharrell x Adidas NMD HU Cream (images below : Adidas).
Spot notably delivered pairs of limited edition NMD HU Cream sneakers in the United States to the rapper Pusha T and the footballer David Beckham.
Discover the robot Spot in this video of the website Hypebeast about Pharrell William.
But the robotic dog does not limit its movements and activities to the simple heavenly setting of celebrity villas, it is ready to explore more rugged terrain. Thus, the regional French daily Ouest France (see here) followed, on March 30 and 31, military exercises of the École Militaire Interarmes (EMIA), one of the schools of the French army, to which Spot participated as a robotic assistant, on the military camp of Coëtquidan, in Brittany.
Maneuvers intended to study "the robotization of the battlefield" to "make students aware of the challenges of tomorrow", one could read, on April 6, on the Twitter account (see here) of Les Ecoles de Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan (ESCC), training establishments for officers of the French army.
Between military maneuvers and fashion tech marketing campaigns, it’s a strange splits for this robot, intended for inspection and data capture tasks, that raises questions about its future use, for instance by the American website on technology The Verge, in an article published on April 7. But only as far as Spot is up to its possible military tasks. While he was successful in delivering a few pairs of Adidas sneakers to their recipients, Spot "found himself short of energy in the midst of the assault", reports Ouest France. Hopefully, before Terminator comes to deliver a little black dress to Sarah Connor, there is still some way to go.
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