Academia & Education

Research and discover new breakthroughs in robotics using Spot, a flexible platform that’s easy to use and deploy.

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Platform for innovation

Spot’s mobility, paired with its open platform for sensing and manipulation, offers the flexibility you need for research and education. With out-of-the-box functionality, Spot can handle its own mobility, autonomy, and navigation while researchers and developers augment the robot in the area of innovation most interesting to them.

Opportunities for exploration

Boston Dynamics created Spot and our other robots to change how we think about robotics—now it’s your turn. Take a closer look at the research fields where Spot can help you make an impact.

Research-ready functionality to jumpstart innovation

Whether you’re pushing the boundaries of robotics and AI, developing novel new applications, or educating the next generation or researchers, engineers, and technicians, we solved mobility, manipulation, and ease of use out of the box—so you can focus on what really matters.

Spot Arm reaching for equipment in a cave
Autonomy: Push the boundaries of autonomous exploration

Developers can augment Spot’s built-in functionality to record and replay autonomous missions with even more sophisticated autonomy solutions. We make the broader autonomous navigation API that Autowalk is built on readily available to solve tough usability challenges for new features or applications.

Map of an autonomous mission for Spot through an API
Manipulation: Explore applications for mobile manipulation

The Spot Arm allows the robot to interact with the world around it, expanding its possible applications. Using the Arm API, researchers can develop novel behaviors to inspect objects, collect samples, open doors, and change its environment in ways other robots can’t.

Spot using its arm to flip an industrial switch
Applied Research: Customize the platform to solve common industry challenges

Spot offers a customizable platform to integrate sensing, communication, and control capabilities, supported by detailed documentation that covers the full range of mechanical, electrical, and software interfaces that Spot supports. This wide range of possible software and payloads helps kickstart interesting academia-industry collaborations to find new ways to solve old problems.

Spot with multiple inspection payloads going down stairs
Education: Prepare for the future of robotics

As robots become increasingly widespread at work and in our daily lives, so too will the need for skilled engineers, programmers, technicians, and operators familiar with robotics.. Working with Spot excites students, driving recruitment and classroom engagement, while preparing your students for a future where robots are commonplace.

A professor demos Spot in a college classroom

Spot for Academia

Academia Kit

Equip your research team with the necessary tools to jumpstart a range of research opportunities and discover novel applications.

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Spot for Academia

Arm

The integrated Spot Arm allows the robot to interact with the world around it, greatly expanding its possible applications.

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Spot for Academia

API Access

We maintain extensive developer documentation so you can build upon our robots’ functionality and customize the machine to suit your needs.

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Spot for Academia

Joint-Level API

For researchers looking to explore more complex movements, we offer a Reinforcement Learning (RL) Researcher Kit with lower level access to Spot’s RL-based locomotion policy control system.

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“When integrating autonomy and AI on a physical robot, it's really important that the robot supports the requirements of stability over difficult terrain…[and] that the robot is capable of carrying enough science instruments while it has necessary endurance and speed."

Ali Agha

Project Lead, JPL NeBula Autonomy and AI, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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“What we need to work on is the human factor, and how we get people to adopt a disruptive technology in this industry. Any limitations of the technology itself are going to be worked out pretty rapidly.”

Paul Ely

Associate Director of Capital Construction, Virginia Tech

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“The opportunity to work with other groups and people using Spot is valuable…Students feel actually connected to the real world of engineering. The work on their degree went from hypothetical to real very quickly.”

Dale Musser

Associate Teaching Professor, University of Missouri College of Engineering

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Want to see our solutions in action?

If you’re interested in learning more about Boston Dynamics or our solutions, explore success stories and reach out to our experts.