A familiar four-legged friend is keeping watch on Pompeii's ruins with dogged determination. A canine robot dubbed Spot, built by the robotics company Boston Dynamics, has been deployed among the terracotta ruins, which were buried under ash after Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE. The dexterous creature, recognized worldwide for its inexplicably freaky movements, will collect terrain data with the help of a laser-scanning drone and will also deter tomb robbers by sniffing out illicit underground tunnels. Spot is just one of a series of technologies introduced by park authorities as part of Smart@POMPEI, an initiative that aims to make the site a "Smart Archaeological Park." Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, noted that until now, robots had not found application in archaeological sites "due to the heterogeneity of environmental conditions and the size of the site."