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Deployment

Spot at United States

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 · 3 sources · not yet field-verified · Quadrupeds

Track Spot at United States

Recent coverage

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Two Boston Dynamics Spot units (named Dante and Lumos) deployed at Sandy Pond High Voltage Direct Current Converter Station in Massachusetts — terminus of 930-mile HVDC line from Canada. Spot conducts autonomous outdoor rounds and manual thyristor valve hall inspections every two weeks. First robot ever inside an energized thyristor valve hall (450kV DC / 345kV AC).

Equipped with 30x optical zoom PTZ camera and IR camera for hotspot detection. Mesh radio network (14 radios) allows control from control room via Orbit platform. Discovered oil leak on bushing, enabling planned outage. Dean Berlin (Lead Technology Analyst): 'Spot is a part of our team now.'

Key facts

Operator
National Grid
Site
Sandy Pond Converter Station (HVDC)
Use
Autonomous thermal and visual inspection of the high-voltage thyristor valve hall; identified hotspots preventing outages

Exposure

Customer segment
agriculture
Scale tier
mass 100 999

Each exposure value carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.

Safety record

No incidents on record for Spot at United States.

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

Trust tier
Catalog entry · 3 sources · not yet field-verifiedhow tiers work →
Last updated
2026-08-21
Model
Spot
Company
Boston Dynamics
Location
United States
Operator
Boston Dynamics
Status
operational
Operator type
customer deployed
Scale at site
100+ units
Site environment
mixed
Location precision
verified coordinates
First seen
2024-06-01
ID
9dd705e9-a33f-41b2-b516-818571bd12a1

Timeline

  1. Jun 2024
    First recorded
    Spot first documented operating at United States.
  2. Jun 2026
    created
  3. Jun 2026
    field updated
    sources: source added → Boston Dynamics: National Grid | Boston Dynamics
  4. Aug 2026
    Current status: operational, reviewed
    Latest recorded state. New status transitions append here as the deployment-status recorder produces them.

On the deployment map

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Spot operates in United States. Explore the full verified map:

Sources (3)

  1. https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/grid-work-stories/spot-robot-dog-carries-out-safety-inspections
  2. https://bostondynamics.com/blog/retrospective-on-boston-dynamics-spot-robot-uses/
  3. https://bostondynamics.com/case-studies/national-grid/
Methodology: Verified · 3 sources (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-08-21

Verification posture

Verified

Low confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-08-21

Maturity + lifecycle

Maturity stage: commercial

Lifecycle: active

Architectural position

Cohort: quadruped

Sources by quality tier

3
unclassified
Unclassified source

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

Methodology surface for Spot at United States.

Common questions

What is the Spot deployment at United States?
Spot, built by Boston Dynamics, is recorded as a deployment at United States on the DEPLOY registry. Boston Dynamics operates the deployment directly.
Who operates Spot at United States?
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 United States go live?
The deployment is recorded as starting June 1, 2024 on the DEPLOY registry. Earlier activity may exist but is not yet sourced.
Have there been incidents at the Spot deployment at United States?
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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