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Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is testing the use of the Boston Dynamics Spot robot with an onboard manipulator to remotely trip high-voltage breakers. The primary use case is to save lives and prevent injury to power station workers. There are an estimated 30,000 instances of arc flash each year in the United States alone, and one to two fatalities occur daily in North America.
This image (taken from the video) shows the custom end effector developed as part of the fully automated racking procedure for Spot. | Credit: Boston Dynamics
OPG has five Boston Dynamics’ Spot robots deployed throughout their Enterprise Innovation division. In 2022, the team sought to see if Spot’s dexterous arm could be used to assist in tripping and racking out a 600-volt breaker—an activity that is high risk for arc flash. As shown in the video above, Boston Dynamics engineers have taken this application to the next level by fully automating the procedure. Spot can perform the entire operation autonomously, with a human issuing high-level commands safely out of harm’s way.
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