Boston Dynamic's Spot Robot Will Monitor Safety at Hyundai Plant in South Korea

Hyundai Motor, which acquired a controlling interest in Boston Dynamics late last year, has unveiled its first joint project with the popular robotics company – a robot designed to ensure safety in industrial sites, the company says in a blog post.

Factory Safety Service Robot, or Robot for short, is already operating in a test mode at the South Korean auto plant of Kia, the subsidiary company of Hyundai. It is based on a four-legged Spot robot and features artificial intelligence, autonomous navigation, as well as remote control technologies.

Using a built-in thermal camera and a 3D LiDAR, Robot can detect people, monitor temperature in the industrial area, evaluate fire risks, and determine if a door is open or closed.

The robot can work both autonomously and remotely. Thanks to Factory Safety Service Robot, plant personnel can remotely observe industrial areas. Robot can send the company's employees alarms if it detects dander and photographs of what is happening in the industrial site.

If necessary, employees can switch to manual teleoperation to carefully inspect the necessary areas of the plant or direct the robot closer to the source of the problem. The robot can also move in narrow spaces and identify blind spots that are inaccessible to the human eye.

The Hyundai Motor group was responsible for navigation and a number of other systems of Robot.

At the Kia plant, Robot it will take over night patrols and provide a safer working environment. After reviewing the results, the company will decide whether it can use the robot in other industrial facilities and factories of the company.