Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Sometimes, high-tech solutions aren't the best way to solve a problem. The US Army apparently came to that realization recently while exploring new methods to deter birds and other "problematic wildlife" from air bases. The military initially considered using Boston Dynamics' dog-like Spot robot to scare off the intruders, but they quickly realized it wasn't fast enough to effectively shoo the critters away. A far more effective--and affordable--solution presented itself in the form of three life-sized plastic coyote decoys mounted on top of toy-sized autonomous vehicles.

A robot dog equipped with a blowtorch could be used to stop weeds growing on farms, potentially offering a replacement for harmful herbicides. Even highly targeted herbicides can cause environmental problems, affecting local wildlife, and "superweeds" are quickly evolving resistance to the most common weed-killers like glyphosate. In search of an alternative solution, Dezhen Song at Texas A&M University and his colleagues have developed a weed control system that uses a brief burst of heat from a propane-powered torch controlled by a robotic arm, attached to a Spot robot manufactured by Boston Dynamics. Rather than incinerate the weeds, the robot is designed to identify and heat up the centre of the plant, which can stop it growing for several weeks, says Song. "The weeds don't die – you just suppress their growth so it gives your crop a chance to fight the weed." The latest science news delivered to your inbox, every day.

A robot dog equipped with a flamethrower could be used to stop weeds growing on farms, potentially offering a replacement for harmful herbicides. Even highly targeted herbicides can cause environmental problems, affecting local wildlife, and "superweeds" are quickly evolving resistance to the most common weed-killers like glyphosate. In search of an alternative solution, Dezhen Song at Texas A&M University and his colleagues have developed a weed control system that uses a brief burst of heat from a propane-powered flamethrower controlled by a robotic arm, attached to a Spot robot manufactured by Boston Dynamics. Rather than incinerate the weeds, the robot is designed to identify and heat up the centre of the plant, which can stop it growing for several weeks, says Song. "The weeds don't die – you just suppress their growth so it gives your crop a chance to fight the weed." Song and his team first tested the flame nozzle to make sure they could accurately target the weeds' centre.

A novel method to control the Spot robot of Boston Dynamics by Hololens 2 is proposed. This method is mainly designed for people with physical disabilities, users can control the robot's movement and robot arm without using their hands. The eye gaze tracking and head motion tracking technologies of Hololens 2 are utilized for sending control commands. The movement of the robot would follow the eye gaze and the robot arm would mimic the pose of the user's head. Through our experiment, our method is comparable with the traditional control method by joystick in both time efficiency and user experience. Demo can be found on our project webpage: https://zhangganlin.github.io/Holo-Spot-Page/index.html

Back in 2021, the New York Police Department (NYPD) cancelled a planned deployment of the Spot robot dog [aka "Digidog"] following a public backlash. Now, New York City's current law and order mayor Eric Adams has brought the robot dog back for use in "hazardous situations," The New York Times has reported. "Digidog is out of the pound," Adams said at a press conference yesterday in Times Square. The NYPD will acquire two of the robots for $750,000 and only use them in hostage and other critical situations. "I believe that technology is here; we cannot be afraid of it," Adams said.

If you know anything about Ghost Robotics, it's likely one of two things: 1) They make robot dogs. A majority of the Philadelphia firm's press coverage has revolved around these facts, along with some coverage of its systems being used to patrol the U.S. border. It's shameful how both parties fight tooth nail to defend their ability to pump endless public money into militarization. From tanks in police depts to corrupt military contracts, funding this violence is bipartisan non-controversial, yet healthcare housing isn't. Ghost has thus far not demonstrated any manner of ethical qualms when it comes to its work with military and law enforcement -- but it's the company's product design that could ultimately get it in hot water.

Imagine if -- perhaps fed up of being shaken and squeezed by curious recipients -- Christmas presents had the habit of rising on spindly legs and trotting off elsewhere. This is the simultaneously comic yet oddly unsettling spectacle played out in Boston Dynamic's freshly released festive video that stars their iconic robot dog, Spot. Initially completely covered by a large, beautifully-wrapped gift box, the mechanical mutt stands up and sedately saunters offscreen -- visible only via its legs as it leaves. The surreal visuals are reinforced by a quirky version of'Jingle Bells', although one is sure that the end message -- 'Happy Holidays' -- is quite sincerely meant. Imagine if -- perhaps fed up of being shaken and squeezed by curious recipients -- Christmas presents had the habit of rising on spindly legs and trotting off elsewhere.

The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger is famous for his hip-snaking sorcery on stage, but the lead singer may have been shown up by Boston Dynamic robot'Spot' in a new video. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the British band's'Tattoo You' album, Boston Dynamics' engineers taught Spot to dance and lip-sync like Jagger in the'Start Me Up' music video. The company also trained three other Spot robots to recreate the moves of fellow band members Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts. During the video, the lead Spot moves its long neck to mimic the motions Jagger makes with his arms and the robot also opens its mouth to lip-sync along with the Rockstar. The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger is famous for his hip-snaking sorcery on stage, but the lead singer may have been shown up by Boston Dynamic robot'Spot' in a new video The veteran British band first began performing in 1962 and are the first to score a number one album on the British charts across six different decades.

The last time we saw Spot dance, it was with the entire Boston Dynamics family at the end of last year. That was mostly a showcase of how much Atlas, the company's bipedal robot, had come from the days when it could barely walk. In a new solo display, we get to see it move to "Start Me Up" from The Rolling Stones in honor of the 40th anniversary of their 1981 album Tattoo You. And if you thought Spot dancing was too close to the uncanny valley, wait until you see it lip-sync. It is truly the stuff of nightmare fuel.

The Transform Technology Summits start October 13th with Low-Code/No Code: Enabling Enterprise Agility. Boston Dynamics has just released the latest update for its famous quadruped robot Spot, giving it better capability to make inspections and collect data without the need for human intervention. Called Spot Release 3.0, the new update adds "flexible autonomy and repeatable data capture, making Spot the data collection solution you need to make inspection rounds safer and more efficient." Unlike many other Boston Dynamics announcements, this one is not accompanied by a flashy video. But it could have a huge impact on Spot's position in the industrial mobile robot market, where it can reduce the costs of IoT instrumentation and the risks of exposing human operators to environmental hazards.