But Spot is far from the only robodog on the block.
One of its competitors is ANYmal, an autonomous quadruped thats impressively good at everything from parkour toclimbing ladders.
Apart from doing tricks, ANYmal also has a real job.
It does routine inspections in some of the toughest places on Earth.
Think oldnuclear power plants, abandoned mines, and offshore oil rigs.
With its AI brain, it plans safe paths and knows where its been.
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ANYmals human master is ANYbotics, a company spun out from ETH Zurich in 2016.
The startup has just raised $60mn to build more inspection robots and make them smarter.
Currently, close to 200 ANYmals are deployed at worksites across the world.
As of last year, the companyreportedhaving more than $150mn in pre-orders.
ANYbotics recently opened an office in Silicon Valley to tackle the American market.
This will put it into closer competition with Spot, which also does its fair share of industrial inspections.
ANYbotics trains its robot using AI computing from Nvidia.
This latest funding brings ANYbotics total raised to over $130mn.
Story bySion Geschwindt
Sion is a freelance science and technology reporter, specialising in climate and energy.
