Google's artificial intelligence (AI) "Gemini" has been integrated into Hyundai Motor Group's "Spot." This move brings to life Hyundai Motor Group's vision of robots and AI becoming companions in daily life and industrial settings, driving human progress.

On the 14th (local time), Boston Dynamics released a video on its YouTube channel showcasing its quadruped robot "Spot," which has become smarter with Google's AI "Gemini" applied.

On the 14th (local time), Boston Dynamics released a video on its YouTube channel showcasing the quadruped robot "Spot," which has become smarter with Google's AI "Gemini" applied. Boston Dynamics

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In the video, Spot uses its onboard camera and Gemini to independently check and recognize the to-do list written on a whiteboard. Responding to commands, it tidies up shoes scattered at the entrance by putting them in the shoe rack, picks up empty cans and throws them into the trash bin, gathers clothes from the floor and puts them in the laundry basket, and checks the condition of a mousetrap under the furniture, sequentially completing the activities listed.

When "walking the dog" is added to the to-do list, Spot heads outdoors, grabs a leash, and walks the dog. The video ends on a witty note, as Spot tries to play fetch in the snow but ends up in a playful standoff with the dog, who simply stares back blankly.

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In an additional released video, Spot demonstrates its enhanced supervisory and monitoring roles in industrial settings, powered by Gemini. It detects water pooling on the floor to issue warnings and responds to commands to check temperatures, interpreting on-site data.

Boston Dynamics revealed on its official blog that this level of intelligence in Spot was made possible through collaboration with Google.

Boston Dynamics has integrated the AI functionality "AIVI-Learning" (Artificial Intelligence Vision Inspection-Learning) of its robot software platform Orbit, with Google's robotics AI, "Gemini Robotics ER 1.6" (hereafter referred to as Gemini Robotics).

With this, Google's dedicated robotics AI has been applied, enabling the robot to go beyond merely "seeing" in complex industrial environments to understanding, making judgments, and acting autonomously. As a result, Orbit now possesses higher-level reasoning capabilities and can perform more complex visual analyses.

This update enables Spot to analyze and interpret environmental information collected by various sensors using Gemini, laying the foundation for it to evolve into an intelligent robot capable of sophisticated environment recognition, situation assessment, and understanding the context of tasks.

For Spot, new features have been added, such as measurement functions through gauge checking and counting the number of pallets. The accuracy of visual inspection tasks, including reading digital screens, has been significantly improved, resulting in overall enhancements in inspection performance. In addition, through seamless upgrades, the AI model can be continuously updated without separate system downtime, and inspection accuracy can be automatically improved without additional intervention from administrators.

Transparency in the AI decision-making process has also been enhanced. Users can directly check the AI's reasoning process and the grounds for its decisions via prompts, ensuring greater reliability when applied in the field.

The collaboration between Boston Dynamics and Google is expected to elevate the significance of AI applications in robotics to a new level. With the ability to comprehensively understand information based on images, videos, and text, the industrial value of robots is anticipated to expand dramatically.

Marco Da Silva, Head of Product Development for Spot at Boston Dynamics, stated, "With new features like gauge reading and more accurate decision-making capabilities, Spot will become a truly autonomous robot that can directly understand and address issues in the workplace."

Meanwhile, at CES in January, Hyundai Motor Group presented its vision of expanding robotics from simple technical demonstrations to all aspects of human life and industry under the theme "AI Robotics: From the Lab to Life," aiming to drive human progress. The group also announced a strategic collaboration with Google DeepMind to accelerate the development of future humanoid technologies.