This week in robotics I was given my assignment – a research report on the application of an embedded system. I have to choose an embedded system and research its history of the system and it’s applications, then I’ll have to look into the technology involved, both software and hardware. And finally, I’ll need to find the societal impacts the system has, both positive and negative.
I have decided to look into the technology involved in Boston Dynamics’ robot dog, Spot. Boston Dynamics’ developments over the last few years, and Spot in particular, are what made me decide to take robotics. I find this area very interesting and look forward to having an opportunity to learn more about how a part of Spot works. Spot’s ability to traverse irregular terrain while making a digital map of the environment in order to collect data is what interested me the most about it. Because of that, I have decided to write my report on Spot’s Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping system, called SLAM. Although I haven’t yet done a lot of research into it, I have already found some interesting parts about SLAM, including the way it creates a point cloud, which is a series of data points, represented by dots, which create a 3D map of the space around it.
I am excited to look more into this embedded system as it is an area of robotics which I am genuinely interested in. I look forward to developing my understanding of both the software and the hardware involved in making a system like this one functions.