A $150,000 robot dog is now available to Portland area police departments for use in bomb disposal, hostage crises, and other situations when sending a human could be too risky.
The Metro Explosives Disposal Unit, which consists of 16 bomb technicians and seven K-9 teams from several Portland-area police departments, will now have six robot models, including the Boston Dynamics model named Spot.
Other places, similar robots have caused controversy.
One of the main advantages of this robot over its predecessors is its ability to navigate challenging terrain, such moving up stairs.
Spot includes sensors that keep it from colliding with objects, an extensible arm in place of a head, and four legs. It is operated via a tool that looks like a Gameboy and displays a real-time view from the robot’s cameras. Additionally, unlike the older models, it doesn’t require precise instructions to perform multi-step operations like opening a door.
During a demonstration at Portland International Airport on Thursday, January 23, 2025, Boston Dynamics’ agile mobile robot Spot is in operation.Connor Vickie/The Oregonian
At a news conference held at Portland International Airport on Thursday, officers from many law enforcement agencies demonstrated the capabilities of the robot by trotting it out.
Initially, a cop with bomb-sniffing dog Jacky walked up to three suitcases that had been purposefully put on the airport floor and sat down in front of the little, black bag in the center. According to Sgt. Jim DeFrain, this indicated that the dog had detected a questionable parcel.
DeFrain then maneuvered the two-foot-tall robot in the direction of the bag by pressing buttons on the Gameboy-like device in his hands. The view from the robot’s front camera was displayed on the screen as the bag appeared in his hands. After pressing on the picture of the bag, he asked a few questions, which caused the robot to reach out and grab the bag.
In contrast to the previous model, which could take more than five minutes, DeFrain demonstrated how the robot could jog up and down a flight of stairs in a couple of seconds.
Meanwhile, Dustin Nicholson of the Vancouver Police Department used a gadget with a joystick and numerous buttons to control an earlier model robot at the airport. According to Nicholson, Spot will function best in some circumstances while he would rather use the older model in others.
He can successfully point at a bag on the screen and instruct Spot to pick it up with the new robot, but Spot is less helpful for precision tasks like opening the bag’s zipper.
During a demonstration at Portland International Airport on Thursday, January 23, 2025, Boston Dynamics’ agile mobile robot Spot is in operation.Connor Vickie/The Oregonian
According to the Portland Police Bureau, Spot was acquired in November through a federal grant. The robot is not meant to confront humans and is not armed.
Other police departments have previously used the robot model. After receiving criticism from the public and raising worries about monitoring, it was first used at the New York City Police Department in 2020 before being sent back to the maker the following year.
In 2023, the agency resurrected the robot after city leaders pledged to use it only in life-threatening circumstances.
Fedor Zarkhin is an enterprise and breaking news reporter. Have you got a story? Contact him by email at [email protected] or by phone at 971-373-2905.
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