Wien Energie takes Spot the robotic dog and its digital ‘nose’

It performs, tirelessly, as a new support system for Viennese site inspections, reporting technical faults.

Equipped with numerous special cameras and sensors, Spot is contributing to the security of supply for more than 800,000 households in Vienna, said the energy company.

Only it now goes under a nom de plume in Austria: EnergyDog!

“Our EnergyDog provides high-tech support at the power station and highlights the innovative strength of Wien Energie,” said Wien Energy General Manager, Karl Gruber.

“This special device will be the first in Europe to be deployed in routine operations in a power station. The EnergyDog learns from its human colleagues, stores important knowledge and makes everyday operations for our personnel easier and safer. This allows them to focus all their expertise on complex tasks.”

You can see it pictured below with Wien Energie’s Data Scientist Matthias Kahr.

The company also highlights its sensitive digital nose:

“Automation has also found its way into the power station sector. The job of site inspectors, for example, will in the long term be taken over by this robotic dog with its sensitive digital ‘nose’. This will take some of the burden off power station personnel, who are in high demand due to generation change and a potential lack of specialists. The EnergyDog will not however be replacing any staff. On the contrary, it will be providing them with high-tech support.”

Apparently from spring 2023, EnergyDog has been in use, around the clock, performing inspection tours the site. You can read more about his work in detail here, on the Boston Dynamics site:

“Thanks to its multiple interfaces, Spot from Boston Dynamics offers a high degree of flexibility, allowing Wien Energie’s inspection team to use a wide variety of sensors. In addition to a 360-degree camera, Wien Energie’s Energy Dog is equipped with an RGB camera with up to 30x zoom, a thermal imaging camera, and special sensor technology for detecting different gases.”

“Equipped in this way, the robot performs tasks such as automatically taking pictures of fire-safety systems (such as fire extinguishers), reading fill levels and analog displays (such as pressure, tank levels, and engine oil levels) at predetermined locations, and measuring air quality (e.g. next to a boiler, with a special focus on carbon monoxide, natural gas, ammonia, as well as carbon dioxide). These pictures are then analyzed using software developed by Smart Inspection. As soon as the measured values deviate from preset target values, an alarm is triggered and an inspection team investigates the matter.”

Go Spot! I mean, EnergyDog.

Images: Boston Dynamics, Wien Energie

See also: Spot the robotic dog heads to UK nuclear decommissioning site