Robotics experts from RACE were invited to demonstrate the robotic quadruped ‘Spot’ at the Goodwood Festival of Speed ‘Future Lab’ event earlier this month.
A team from RACE took two of the agile, robotic canines to the four-day Goodwood event in West Sussex in order to demonstrate how mobile robots can be used in different applications.
Future Lab is where companies demonstrate cutting-edge technology and inventions from around the world.
RACE currently owns two Spots, one of which took a trip last year to Chernobyl as part of a UKAEA and University of Bristol collaboration project.
“Having been invited to demonstrate Spot at Goodwood, we used it to raise awareness of RACE and UKAEA, and show how robots like Spot can be used as a safer alternative when having to carry out work in hazardous environments”, said Oliver Huke, Robotics Test Facilities Manager at RACE.
“We were able to show off Spot for all four days of the festival – in addition to taking a second Spot into an outdoor arena to demonstrate its ability to climb obstacles and stairs, and rather importantly, get itself back up if it falls (which it duly did a couple of times).”
Spot’s appearance even got a mention by musician and actor Goldie on his Instagram account.
Oliver – who said Spot would see further deployments over the next year – added: “Demonstrating Spot proved hugely popular and we were even invited to take SPOT for a run on the hill climb itself.”
You can watch highlights from the Future Lab (including Spot approx. 16mins in) on the ITV Hub.
