It’s twerked to Bruno Mars and hauled a truck across a parking lot. Now, Boston Dynamics’ robot dog has a new calling: rickshaw driver.
Former MythBusters host Adam Savage—self-proclaimed rickshaw addict—built a two-wheeled passenger cart with the sole purpose of testing Spot’s abilities.
“I want … a simple task that we give Spot that is fun and evocative and strange and hilarious,” Savage said in a clip uploaded to his Tested YouTube channel.
“I thought, ‘I would love to ride him.’ But he does not have the payload to handle me—yet,” Savage continued. “Then I thought, ‘Well, maybe he should just take me on a trip.’ And that’s when I remembered that I’ve been obsessed with rickshaws forever.”
With a little help from his friends—Boston Dynamics’ Seth Davis and Build Cool Stuff founder Zach Radding—Savage spends about half of the video constructing a custom attachment for Spot.
The engineering details go right over my head, but it’s fun to see a master at work, carving and drilling and welding and creating something from nothing.
Eventually, with all the clamps in place, Savage boards his pedicab for a first test.
Small and nimble, the 2.75-foot-tall quadruped can carry a 30-pound payload while operating for up to 90 minutes on a single charge.
Obviously, between the steampunk rickshaw and the 52-year-old man riding it, Spot’s got more than 30 lbs. in tow. But, like a wheelbarrow, these 19th-century vehicles distribute the weight of their load between the wheels and the operator.
So, when held at a certain angle, the carriage becomes lighter and easier to pull—even for a mini machine.
“I would love to do this all day. And, believe you me, I will,” Savage said, following some successful tests in his workshop. “But the next sequence of this video needs to be this out on an open range somewhere.”
Cut to Savage, wearing a Victorian top hat, on an Alameda County Sheriff’s Department training course in California. Rickshaw bell clanging, Spot carries his passenger along a gravel road, Savage giggling maniacally the entire time.
The first run proves a bit challenging for the canine robot, running stock software operated by Davis off-camera. When given the ability to assess the weight and forces on it, Spot can automatically adjust to them, adapting as necessary.
Christmas came early for Savage when Spot arrived at the Tested offices in December. The team will spend the next year experimenting with the bot, integrating it into the workshop, and taking it on adventures in the field.
The four-legged machine, considered Boston Dynamics’ “quietest robot” yet, began shipping to select early adopters in September.
More on Geek.com:
- Watch: Boston Dynamics’ New Robot Can Stack Boxes Like a Boss
- Boston Dynamics to Produce 1,000 Spot Mini Robo Dogs Annually
- Adam Savage Talks To Us About Taking a Deep Dive Into Science Fiction
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