Boston Robotics’ Robert Playter and Spot gets interviewed by Jimmy Fallon (Spot doesn’t talk), and then several Spot(s?) danced to BTS’s song IONIQ.

During the interview, (I believe) Spot is being remote controlled by someone behind the scene, but it does look like it could have autonomy – it enters the scene by itself, emotes, and anticipates audience response. It shows off its own features: runs around and pours a beer. As the CEO explains, the audience learns that it doesn’t have the autonomy of a person, such as deciding what task to perform next, but does have the intelligence to translate commands such as going back and forth into action sequences, and probably plans ahead on how many steps to take to reach the bottom of the stairs.

I like the beer can throwing part. It’s unexpected.

While the choreography in the dance is probably pre-programmed, I am wondering if the robot has features that allows it to avoid running into objects or people (since this is live performance and Spot does walk up to the audience).

Boston Dynamics have a bunch of robots! They are mostly powerful robots for industrial or military use, so it would be scary for them to embody autonomy. In a sense Spot has similar autonomy to Keepon – Spot react to joystick controlls, and Keepon react to human touch (on specific sensors).