Referred to as a “dog,” the many eyes on this robot make it more like a spider. Because all directions are equivalent, it must be programmed to know its way around when sent to perform a mission. It must also be told what it needs to accomplish- in this case, inspecting an electrical substation in Massachusetts. MIT grad Dean Berlin, the Lead Engineer in Technology Deployment at National Grid, has worked with robots for much of his career. He uses “Fiducial Markers” – white cards with black patterns that work with computer vision – to orient the robot in its surroundings and tell it where to go and what to do. Moving from one Fiducial to the next, the robot collects data, including visual and thermal imagery, and transmits it back to the home base, where it can be analyzed. This allows the engineers at National Grid to understand the health of the station without continuously sending a human to inspect – a repetitive task made even more unpleasant in rain, snow, or heat – conditions that don’t matter to the robot.

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