Spot robot dog is on duty as a security guard in Pompeii! Not only to prevent tomb robbers, but also to do somersaults and 3D modeling

In addition to releasing dancing videos every year, Boston Dynamics’ robot dogs have been purchased by various industrial and security department customers to serve as patrol officers’ partners.

But it is used for the protection of archaeological remains. The Pompeii ruins in Italy in 2022 are the first.

Robot dog is in trial operation at the Pompeii ruins

In June 2022, Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot dog began official trial operation at the Pompeii ruins.

The intelligent equipment of the 21st century AD patrols the ruins of the ancient city of the 1st century AD, which has a visual impact of the vicissitudes of life.

The company currently responsible for trial operation of the Spot robot dog in Pompeii is the Italian geographical mapping company Leica Geosystem. Among them, developer Valerio Brunelli, who operated the robot dog for the first time, said that this product is "a collection of contemporary cutting-edge technologies, which is suitable for use here." Visitors also witnessed the work site of the Spot robot dog, and the operator even let the robot dog face the tourists. After somersaulting, he lay low and acted cute.

The current mission of the Spot robot dog in Pompeii is to patrol and inspect areas of the Pompeii ruins that are difficult to reach manually, collect various environmental data, and automatically prompt the operator about the ruins Various abnormal situations.

The price of Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot dog to the Italian government is US$75,000. Italian officials have not yet decided whether to finalize the purchase.

The Spot robot dog model currently in trial operation in Pompeii City weighs 70 kilograms and is half the size of an adult golden retriever. After being modified by Leica Geosystem, the Spot robot dog used for patrols not only has 360-degree panoramic detection capabilities, but can also instantly generate accurate 3D model maps after scanning the surrounding environment.

The Spot robot dog with such capabilities can not only easily travel through gravel, ruins, narrow paths, and narrow underground tunnels like a real dog, but also can move in real time. Survey and map accurate panoramic terrain and feature maps, and detect subtle damage and weathering conditions of heritage building structures. These functions not only allow managers who monitor sites every day to discover changes in building protection that were previously difficult to detect. The ability to generate and transmit 3D mapping models of sites in real time also significantly reduces the workload of the archaeological community and the negative impact of destructive excavations.

The robot dog becomes the nemesis of tomb robbers

One of the important tasks of the robot dog Spot is to survey the tunnels secretly dug by cultural relic thieves.

The ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii cover an extensive area, approximately 400,000 square meters, including above-ground architectural remains and underground ruins, as well as densely populated caves in the ruins.

Digging holes in cultural relic sites is a way for cultural relic dealers and tomb robbers to make a fortune. Faced with the temptation of huge black interests, thieves who dig holes will naturally not break ground in accordance with construction safety standards. The risk of collapse of the hole is extremely high.

According to the "Guardian" report, due to Italian law enforcement agencies' crackdown on art smuggling, the number of excavations at the Pompeii site dropped sharply after 2012.

However, this does not eliminate all excavation crimes. There are still new tomb robbers who continue to dig holes in the ruins. Cave theft not only destroys the ruins, but also jeopardizes normal archaeological surveys. Because cultural relic thieves will not copy the excavation drawings to legitimate archaeological teams, when the archaeological team excavates a site that has been stolen before, they are likely to dig holes and trigger landslides. These stolen holes are difficult to detect by human supervisors. Therefore, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the person in charge of the management of the Pompeii ruins, said, "The use of robot dogs to patrol will allow monitoring personnel to carry out daily operations at a faster speed and with complete safety guarantee."

Robot dogs patrol around the clock to prevent The ruins are gradually being destroyed

Robot dogs are actually particularly suitable for patrolling and monitoring ruins like Pompeii, because in addition to cave robbers who never consider safety risks, legal archaeological exploration and tourist flow also bring protection to the ancient city ruins pressure.

In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted, and Pompeii, which had 20,000 residents at that time, was buried. At that time, the Roman Empire in the Flavian era had complete archival records and basic administrative mechanisms.

In other words, since ancient times, almost all Europeans have known about this matter and where they can go for archeology. Formal large-scale archaeological excavations began in 1592. Except for tomb robbers, regular large-scale excavation of Pompeii continued from the end of the 16th century until 1960, when it was finally stopped by the Italian government at the time. Because the ancient city ruins have been extensively damaged due to hundreds of years of uninterrupted excavation, there is a risk of total collapse.

Even though large-scale excavations have ceased, regulated and controlled small-scale archaeological excavations continue. For example, in 2018, all the skeletons of escapees who were buried during the volcanic eruption were unearthed, in 2020, actual traces of ancient food stalls were unearthed, and in 2021, the tombs of wealthy slaves were unearthed.

Moreover, the tourism industry in southern Italy now relies heavily on the ancient city of Pompeii. The annual flow of millions of people puts more pressure on the maintenance of the ruins than dealing with tomb robbers. Because of these conditions, the Italian government declared a "state of emergency management" for the Pompeii ruins in 2008.

After the collapse of ancient buildings such as the famous Colosseum ruins in 2013, UNESCO also released an investigation report stating that even under regulations, the archaeological team and tourists had caused erosion and damage to the ruins. The damage has put the excavated ruins at risk of collapse, "putting the entire Pompeii ruins in danger."

Spot robot dog can play a big role in this situation. In conjunction with manual monitoring robot dogs, in the "Smart Pompeii" project to protect the ruins, the structural strength of the ruins and the damage status of various excavated areas are continuously and dynamically monitored around the clock, allowing the management agency to grasp the status of the existing buildings in the ruins in real time. ​

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