What is the Spot robot doing in Pompeii?

The Pompeii Archaeological Park has just hired Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot dog to patrol the site. This will be responsible for inspecting the most dangerous areas, including looters’ tunnels.

After having assisted the policeto be became a shepherdor chernobyl inspector, the Boston Dynamics Spot robot is trying out a new role. The archaeological park from Pompeii decided to call on the talents of the robot to help him preserve the historic site of the city destroyed in the year 79 AD by theeruption of Vesuvius.

Thanks to its many sensors and its ability to move even on uneven ground, it manages to squeeze into many hard-to-reach places. He will thus be able to inspect more dangerous areas, help to better plan the conservation measures of the site, and even to make new discoveries.

A network of dangerous tunnels created by grave robbers

However, one of Spot’s main roles will be to keep watch at night, when the site is often the victim of artifact looters. It will be used in particular to patrol the tunnels created by the ” tombaroli », the grave robbers. They have dug tunnels, often unstable, under the site since the discovery of the buried city 300 years ago. The last tunnels were discovered in 2012.

The use of Spot is part of the Smart@POMPEI project, which aims to use new technologies to preserve the historic site. It is equipped with a Spot CAM+ panoramic camera as well as the sensor lidar Leica BLKARC. Spot will be assisted by drone BLK2FLY from Leica, also equipped with Lidar. They will thus be able to create a modelization Precise 3D of the site in the form of cloud points.