Google, Boston Dynamics Teach Robot Dog 'Spot' To See, Think, And Act
eWeek, Thursday, April 16th, 2026
Google DeepMind and Boston Dynamics have teamed up to give Spot, the famous quadruped yellow robot dog, a new level of intelligence.
By integrating the new Gemini Robotics-ER 1.6 model into Spot, the companies are moving past pre-programmed scripts and toward 'embodied reasoning,' essentially giving the robot the ability to look at a messy room or a complex factory floor and autonomously figure out what to do next.
According to Google DeepMind, this new model is a 'reasoning-first' system. It allows robots to navigate facilities and interpret physical data, such as reading a needle on a pressure gauge, thereby bridging digital AI and physical action.