Boston Dynamics is open sourcing its robots to help combat Coronavirus

Boston Dynamics has announced in a blogpost that it will be releasing a payload and application architecture for their mobile robot in order to protect healthcare workers amid COVID-19.

Now that we have a pandemic to deal with, Spot has been deployed to help with more important challenges, like saving lives and boosting morale up for patients who have been infected with covid-19. Boston Dynamics says that it is open-sourcing Spot’s hardware and software design to help developers and roboticists engineer solutions for combatting the coronavirus.

In this new solution, the iPad mounted on the robot lets health workers communicate with patients remotely, saving time, reducing exposure, and preserving personal protective equipment (PPE). This is already being trailed at the woman’s Hospital in Massachusetts.

With the deployment of our first healthcare-focused robot, we’re open-sourcing all of our work to empower mobile robotics platforms to leverage the same hardware and software stack that we’ve developed to help frontline healthcare workers. Below you’ll find an overview of how we are using (and plan to use) mobile robots to combat the spread of COVID-19.

The company is also exploring into ways of developing new technologies that could measure body temperature, pulse, heart and respiratory rate, using a thermal camera and a mounted RGB camera. They’re also looking at upgrading Spot with a UV-C light to disinfect spaces around the robot.

You can find out more at the Boston Dynamics blog post page: https://www.bostondynamics.com/COVID-19