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Deployment

Spot at Dounreay, Caithness, United Kingdom

Spot is Boston Dynamics' commercially available quadruped robot for autonomous inspection and reality capture. Carrying laser scanners and 360-degree cameras, it runs repeatable Autowalk missions (record a path once, then execute autonomously with dynamic obstacle avoidance) and is widely used for industrial inspection across energy, utilities, manufacturing and construction; the Scout software manages fleets and missions.

Roughly 1,500+ units are deployed globally (base price ~$74,500). It is distinct from Boston Dynamics' Stretch warehouse case-handling robot (see boston-dynamics-stretch) and the Atlas humanoid (see boston-dynamics-atlas), sharing only the manufacturer.

Spot by Boston Dynamics · Catalog entry · 1 source · not yet field-verified · Quadrupeds

Track Spot at Dounreay, Caithness, United Kingdom

Recent coverage

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Dounreay staff and systems integrator Createc deployed two Boston Dynamics Spot robots over five days, with multiple entries into a four-storey evaporator cell in the Fuel Cycle Area that had been shut for about 25 years. The robots built a 3D map and a dosimetry map, and a Spot with an arm took physical samples.

A team of 12 supported the trials, and a series of seven use cases was planned for the following months. Reported by GOV.UK on 1 September 2023; the exact deployment dates are not given.

Key facts

Country
United Kingdom
Sector
Nuclear decommissioning
Operator
Dounreay with Createc
Scale
2 Spot robots, 5-day deployment, team of 12
Tasks
3D mapping, dosimetry mapping, physical sampling
Next steps
Seven use cases planned over the following months

Safety record

No incidents on record for Spot at Dounreay, Caithness, United Kingdom.

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Trust tier
Catalog entry · 1 source · not yet field-verifiedhow tiers work →
Last updated
2026-11-01
Model
Spot
Company
Boston Dynamics
Location
United Kingdom/Dounreay, Caithness, United Kingdom
Status
pilot
Operator type
customer deployed
Site environment
indoor
First seen
2023-09-01
ID
8ca65883-9512-4e1e-957e-4c9cc7fd3d15

Timeline

  1. Sep 2023
    First recorded
    Spot first documented operating at Dounreay, Caithness, United Kingdom.
  2. Nov 2026
    Current status: pilot, reviewed
    Latest recorded state. New status transitions append here as the deployment-status recorder produces them.

On the deployment map

Operates worldwide

Spot is deployed globally rather than at a single verified site, so there is no map pin.

Free to use on your site, with a link back to DEPLOY.

Spot operates in Dounreay, Caithness, United Kingdom. Explore the full verified map:

Sources (1)

  1. Robot proves itself in Dounreay radioactive area · https://www.gov.uk/government/news/robot-proves-itself-in-dounreay-radioactive-area · 2023-09-01
Methodology: Verified · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-11-01

Verification posture

Verified

Low confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-11-01

Maturity + lifecycle

Maturity stage: commercial

Lifecycle: active

Architectural position

Cohort: quadruped

Sources by quality tier

1
unclassified
Unclassified source

The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.

Methodology surface for Spot at Dounreay, Caithness, United Kingdom.

Common questions

What is the Spot deployment at Dounreay, Caithness, United Kingdom?
Spot, built by Boston Dynamics, is recorded as a deployment at Dounreay, Caithness, United Kingdom on the DEPLOY registry. Boston Dynamics operates the deployment directly.
Who operates Spot at Dounreay, Caithness, United Kingdom?
Boston Dynamics, the manufacturer of Spot, operates this deployment directly. This is a maker-deploys-its-own-product arrangement rather than a customer pilot.
When did the Spot deployment at Dounreay, Caithness, United Kingdom go live?
The deployment is recorded as starting September 1, 2023 on the DEPLOY registry. Earlier activity may exist but is not yet sourced.
Have there been incidents at the Spot deployment at Dounreay, Caithness, United Kingdom?
No active incidents affecting this deployment are recorded on the DEPLOY registry. Absence of recorded incidents is not a guarantee no incident occurred; DEPLOY records only sourced incidents and suppresses retracted ones.

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