The robotic dog Spot and his namesake four-legged mechanical companions have been busy recently. Although the Boston Dynamics robot (one of the “magnificent 10” of the company) was created to carry out industrial tasks, today this new "man's best friend" has proven to also be a friend of culture.
Spot is helping Pompeii put together the pieces of the tragedy that you all know. The robotic quadruped has been enlisted to roam the ruins of ancient Pompeii, snooping into hard-to-reach areas in search of information that will be rescued and restored.
A great 'nose' for history
The faithful Spot's observations will help preserve the archaeological park of Pompeii, which is on the verge (absurd that it isn't already) of becoming a UNESCO world heritage site.
With its characteristics, this robot can do a lot: as mentioned, it can control these areas without endangering anyone (since it is able to move on any terrain (. But not only: Spot can also explore underground areas of the Pompeii archaeological park. , to explore areas vandalized in the past by grave robbers and today not very accessible.
If we can send them to Mars, let alone Pompeii
Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of the Pompeii archaeological park, is enthusiastic about using Spot for archaeological research. The state of robotics is increasingly advanced but no one had yet thought of a similar solution,” he says in an interview with the English newspaper The Guardian.
The explorations of the robotic quadruped will be accompanied by the activity of special drones. With their lasers, they will 'map' the locations to make 3D scans and record interesting points in the area. Does it seem futuristic to you? Of course. It's Pompeii.
Perhaps one day all our ancient ruins will be explored with the help of robots, allowing us to learn even more about our history. Until then, we're happy for Spot and his adorable tail (which he doesn't have).
