Dogs trot around MU every day, but some aren’t fluffy — they’re metal.
Since the start of the year, MU has acquired four yellow robotic dogs, all named Spot, to give engineering students hands-on learning experiences. Students have been busy innovating uses for the dogs, from running nuclear power plant safety checks to acting in improv comedy shows.
MU purchased the first Spot and additional camera system for $100,000 from the robotic technology company Boston Dynamics. Energy company Ameren purchased the other three robots, and are collaborating with MU students and faculty to develop ways for Spot to perform safety checks at Callaway Energy Center in Steedman, Missouri.
Dale Musser, an associate professor in the College of Engineering, wanted to give engineering students opportunities to experiment with technology, instead of just learning about it in a classroom.
“We want students to experience autonomous systems technologies,” Musser said. “Spot represented the front end of that — the best of the best that’s currently available in a commercial way … all of the elements of the [Information Technology] program are there in Spot, but in a form that’s exciting. So, I want to have students be interested in [and] motivated by the capabilities of Spot.”
One of the dogs is on vacation in San Francisco, so Musser can work with the programming at his home there. He teaches remotely to students at MU, who work with the three dogs on campus. Since they have IP addresses, Musser also has the ability to control the dogs in Columbia from his office in San Francisco. Kristofferson Culmer, assistant professor in the IT program, teaches students how to use the robots in the Autonomous Systems Lab in Lafferre Hall.
Mason Jenkins and Payton Marlin are both IT seniors working in Musser’s research class to create new uses for Spot.
Marlin began working with Musser as a freshman, so he learned about Spot early on when it arrived this year. Spot doesn’t come with the ability to perform complicated tasks beyond its internal programming that enables it to walk; researchers program software to develop new functions.
Students in the research class went through training to learn how to use the technology safely. Afterward, Musser encouraged students to think of ideas for projects with Spot.
Marlin, who wants to work on voice commands for Spot, said the robot is a useful tool to show students, including himself, how they can apply coding concepts from class to the world around them.
“Learning from a textbook or online is easy for some people, but for me, I have to be hands-on and dive into it,” Marlin said.
Jenkins got involved with the Spot research team by reaching out to Musser after seeing his posts online about Spot. He is currently working with other students to develop an iOS app to control Spot through iPhones. He said he is looking forward to expanding Spot’s capabilities, as they will provide learning opportunities for students with all levels of coding experience.
“Being able to be part of the beginning of something big definitely feels special, and I think it’s what sets Mizzou IT apart,” Jenkins said.
Musser and his team of student researchers are also working with Autowalk, part of Spot’s internal software that allows it to independently walk a mission and collect data while dodging walls or other obstacles. Ameren and the research team at MU hope to implement Autowalk at Callaway Energy Center to carry out site surveys and other missions.
“Imagine Spot is doing a site survey at the nuclear plant and checking to see if things look right,” Musser said. “There’s a set of points that we want Spot to follow and stop at, and maybe take a picture and analyze that picture to see if it’s right or wrong.”
Musser said once Spot completes a defined mission, it can perform it again without any help.
Spot’s many capabilities can be put to use outside of an engineering setting as well.
Musser said MU received licenses for Spot Choreography, a software development kit that can make Spot dance. The program typically costs $10,000 per year, but MU made a deal with Boston Dynamics that the university could access the license for free if it caused an increase in sales of the robots.
MU achieved this increase in sales, and Musser said several groups hope to use the choreography software to make Spot dance at future events. So far, Spot has appeared at events likethe Tiger Walk for freshmen.
Students on the research team frequently take Spot on walks around campus. Musser said Spot has garnered attention from the public, but said it is important for people to stay at least two meters away from the robot for their safety.
“[Showing Spot to the public] is a way to get people to love Mizzou a little more because of the things that we’re doing,” Musser said. “People can experience that technology, and that feeds into another mission for the university — the education of all.”
Kevin Brown, an associate professor in the Department of Theatre, is also looking for creative applications for the robots, including uses in the comedy world.
Brown began working with Musser this summer to learn more about Spot. He is now working with the student comedy groups MU Battlewhale, MU Improv, Comedy Wars and Fishbowl Stand Up to create events that could feature live appearances from Spot. He said he believes that using Spot in comedy performances would showcase what different departments can accomplish when they use their skills together.
“[Musser] has seen how it’s inspired his students to rise to the occasion and become better engineers,” Brown said. “We’re working to find ways to now involve theater people and inspire them in ways to create art that you never would have thought [of] making.”
He said theater students have expressed excitement at the possibility of working with the robots, and that using them will add a special layer to their performances.
Brown said much of comedy is based on human failure, and when a robot in a performance fails to be humanlike, it serves as “a way to remind us what’s human.”
Edited by Namratha Prasad, nprasad@themaneater.com