Tested: 5G and Spot the robot

The Belgian robotics company Zorabots and telecom operator Citymesh are conducting remarkable tests with Spot.

What is Spot?

Spot is one of the robots provided by Zorabots. Initially, Spot was developed and built by Boston Dynamics, a world leader in mobile robots. The robot resembles a dog and, because of the way it is built, has an exceptionally stable mobility. The robot can detect obstacles in its way and redirect its movements accordingly. Spot has many possible applications in diverse settings, from industry to entertainment and is robustly built. Just like a real four-legged friend, Spot listens to your commands. The robot can be programmed to perform a certain routine but you can manually control it as well.

5G Connectivity

Robin Leblon, CTO of Citymesh, provides additional explanation about the role of 5G in this test: “The purpose of our test with a private 5G connection is not so much to directly control the robot. We would rather confirm that the images that Spot takes, can be viewed over greater distances via 5G. In addition, we want to see whether Spot can be adjusted manually via the same connection where necessary.

The result

The test turned out to be successful: Spot can be controlled both via a connection to the Cloud and via a local connection on the private 5G network without noticeable latency.

Citymesh and Zorabots are very satisfied with the result. In the future, the two companies want to look further into an integrated solution for both Spot and the other models in the range. This way, these robots can explore new horizons, without the current connectivity limitations!