Hot dog: Sault College board meets Spot the robot

Sault College administrators and board members were treated to a close up look at the capabilities of Spot — a dog-shaped robotic device soon to be used in some of the post-secondary school’s programs — at their regular monthly board meeting Thursday.   

With board members looking on in a hallway next to the board room, Donovan Kennedy, Sault College Mechatronics professor and coordinator remotely controlled Spot down a nearby flight of stairs, had it pick up a prop water bottle off the floor and hand it to Sault College president David Orazietti.

The college purchased Spot from Boston Dynamics in May 2023 for approximately (US) $200,000.

Students in the college’s Robotics and Automation, Automated Manufacturing and Bachelor of Engineering - Mechatronics programs will study how Spot works and use it in class projects beginning in January.  

“The whole idea of Spot is to do inspections and put them into a place where you can’t normally put humans. We’re trying to take humans out of dangerous situations. When I was at Tenaris there were a few Spots working in the furnace room. Our Spot came with a robotic arm to pick up objects. There’s a camera in it as well so you can do infrared camera shots with it,” Kennedy told the board.

“We’re using it for student recruitment events, as a way of encouraging students to come to Sault College. High school students love it, any chance they get to touch it,” Kennedy said.

Spot’s mobility sets it apart from the college’s current robotic devices.

“We looked at different types of mobile robots but they weren’t as agile. This robot can go up and down stairs, it can pick up objects, you can go outside and inside, over obstacles, so it can traverse so much more terrain compared to a standard or other type of mobile robot,” Kennedy told reporters after Thursday’s board meeting.

Once Sault College students learn more about Spot, the device will be used in a research project with industry partners, Kennedy said.

“It can go into a mining facility and do certain inspections on pressure gauges, water gauges or inspections on electrical equipment with an infrared camera where you don’t normally want to put a human, or working in a furnace that might be still a little too high in temperature for us to comfortably work, to do inspections and checks.”

Kennedy said Spot weighs approximately 45 kg, can carry “a few kilograms” and drag 20 kilograms of weight.

Equipment, such as survey equipment, can be mounted on its back.

“It can pick something up and put it on its back. It can deploy a drone and it’ll dock on the robot when it comes back,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said Spot currently performs tasks for Ontario Power Generation that workers would normally do wearing PPE.

“I would love to have a multitude of different robots here but there isn’t a particular timeline at the moment though,” Kennedy said.

Spot runs on a battery for two hours.

It can travel 15 feet before it loses its Wi-Fi connection and shuts off but can travel farther if hooked up to a cellular signal, Kennedy said.

Getting to know how Spot works will train Sault College technology students for jobs in the robotics field.

“In terms of colleges and universities I believe we’re the only ones in Ontario that have one,” Kennedy told the board.

“I think we’re going to see a lot more of this in all industries so it’s great to see Sault College get into that very important field,” said Shauna Hynna, Sault College board member.

“Spot started with an idea a couple of years ago and we slowly made it a reality,” said Corey Meunier, Sault College Dean of Technology, Trades and Apprenticeship.