Adam Savage Modifies Boston Dynamics Spot's Robot Form!

hey everybody adam savage here in my cave uh  and today's one day build it is a one day build   uh is a return to some one day builds we were  doing last year and earlier this year but   kind of fell by the wayside because of covet  um but it's time to say hello to an old friend   spot he's back on the bench why well it's actually  really exciting and uh we're gonna get into some   fun spot mods today's one day build yeah  we're even going on a location shoot what   so what are we gonna be doing with spot today well  look it's undeniable that a lot of people look at   this guy and they think it's a little bit creepy  they they feel like it's uh i think they feel   like it's a little dystopic and i do not and i've  said this in every spot video i see a magnificent   piece of engineering possible of engineering and  incredible possibility for what it could do uh   but i know that some people look at that and  they're like squeaked out so why well i think   part of it could be how spot looks and that's what  today is one day build as fast but changing spots   look and i have a collaborator potential in  the wings um who shall remain nameless at   this moment in time but an incredible designer  uh who wants to help design a new skin for spot   but as i was thinking about this collaboration i  was realizing it's not just about taking pictures   of a spot and doing drawings on them necessarily  because spot moves so whatever design changes we   make not only have to keep out of the way of  the cameras and the radar systems but also   what do those forms that we may do  to change his outward appearance   do when he's moving so today's one day build  is i'm going to be building a lot of different   shape changers for spot using corrugated  cardboard and feathers and some other stuff   i'm going to be experimenting with how those look  on location we're going to go onto a location with   all the little doodads that i built today and  we're going to do some like muybridge style spot   movement library shots and this should help us get  a much better bead on the things that we can do to   change his appearance that alter one's aesthetic  and hopefully even emotional experience of him   yeah that's today's one day bill let's get started  fire up the hot glue gun oh actually the very   first thing i'm going to be doing is adding a  bunch of velcro to all of his exterior parts   uh in order to be able to stick on and remove  these pieces i've got a whole bunch of two-inch   velcro so um i'm gonna shut them off sit them  down shut them off and start to work on it   i have uh i've powered the spot down i've  powered his motors down so they can't move little hint when using velcro whatever  you've got that faces outwards use loop   whatever you've got the faces inwards  use hook uh nasa follows this on their   spacesuits whatever is meant for stuff to  stick on loop is facing outwards and the hook   is facing inwards that way you're not like  dealing with the scratchy hook all right so um up   do uh i have completed some cardboard pieces uh  these are a very simple construction with   a little bit of hook of velcro on them  and they connect to the arms comes off   it's a lightweight connection but that's fine   it's exactly what i wanted um the spot is off by  the way he's just sitting here uh and there we go   yep and then um i also have a couple of body  forms that can attach stuff uh too and um i know i know it doesn't look like much um hang on so this is just for me to kind of get a feeling for what might work um and it's  actually based on a the the what i'm doing here   is a certain kind of problem solving  that i learned a long time ago uh yeah it's like the early 90s um i was making  a piece of sculpture i was at that point in   like 91 or so i was making tons of hands uh here  are some pictures of some of the hand sculptures   i made back then i was making a bunch of hands  as sculptures and i made this one that i really   liked the look of it it was a good meaty hand and  it had the way uh it was aesthetically physically   perfect but i couldn't figure  out what color it should be   and it sat on my workbench for a few days and no  color inspiration came which was unexpected to me   no no guidance and so i i look  at some stuff sometimes and   like i instantly can see what color it  should be and if i don't i just keep on   building until something happens but this  is a hand sculpture this is a sculpture   in which the whole thing was done but no  color was making itself apparent to me so   i thought i just don't know i had this thought i  don't know and then i had this other thought which   was well what if i did know something is there  something that i know that can help guide me   and i thought okay uh what do i know what color it  shouldn't be it was just a random question i asked   um i was looking for something to latch onto and  i said to myself do i know what color it should be   and instantly in my head what came up was candy  stripe red and white spiral all the way down and i was really clear that that was the worst  possible choice for this sculpture but because   it was the only thing that i knew that i knew  for a fact i was like i'm gonna try painting   a candy strip and i spent six hours masking it  carefully and painting it candy stripe red and   white and when i took the the tape off i don't  have any pictures of this when i took the tape off it was instantly clear what color it wanted to  be and that was uh the color i ended up painting   in this rich verdant uh uh green the green of  portland like the green of a place where it rains   all the time uh england like that kind of green  that rich green i painted the sculpture that   color and it was perfect my friend rhonda  robi showed uh purchased it from me   yeah uh i'm pretty sure she still has  it uh it's one of my favorite pieces   and i would have never latched on to that  color had i not painted it the wrong color   so this is a technique i have used in the  years since then which is if i don't know   if i can't figure out the right path forward  i start assessing the things that i do know   and attacking those one at a time so in this  i don't know what form spot wants to take   or you know what form i'm gonna feel like he  should take but i know that by gluing a bunch of   weird random cardboard to him i am likely  to just to to travel past some inspiration   let's talk about inspiration as a physical  landscape that's exactly what i'm doing i'm taking   a trip through some shapes in hopes that i pass  by a road sign that says inspiration over here   yeah if you don't know which if you don't  know what direction to go in the fact is   any direction is useful as long  as you're doing it with purpose yeah so this is in a way this is sort of  like how i uh keep from stagnating right i   don't just sit there and wait for inspiration i  push the thing in a specific direction until the   inspiration becomes clear all right i think  i've explained that three times i think i uh   so that's what i'm doing here um all this  is also uh a long way of explaining that   i don't nothing here is exciting me in  terms of these shapes they're just here   as like structural standards tomorrow i'm  going to start playing around with some   shapes and swoops and some other stuff but  right now it's just to me it just looks like   it looks like i don't know what i'm doing and  the answer is i don't know exactly what i'm doing   i know what i'm trying i know what the goal should  feel like um but here it's just like yeah it's   never easy in this spot and it's never simple in  this liminal space before you kind of have that   moment i also have made a couple of other  pieces which i'm kind of excited about   um i made an antenna so there's a base  that's just some uh instacast port into   a pvc pipe and then lathe on my lathe  in a minute this is a glass panel light   i purchase these on ebay all the time  because they're rare and hard to find and   nothing looks better look at that thing oh wait  i can light it up for you hold on um hang on there we go oh yeah right that is nice and  bright how did i get it so bright because   none of my leds are quite this bright i took this  industrial flashlight that i found for three bucks   and i literally soldered to its little head  and because it's a single double-a battery   i made it all integrated so this is also i'm  um actually hold on put this away this is um   just gonna sit there and i'm just  curious about what kind of movement   an antenna does when he walks yeah i kind  of have this image in my head of him having   a couple of antennas so i'm building a second  one and that as he moves they kind of rock back   and forth like the mondochauan uh from that  shot at the beginning of the fifth element   but this is all just data gathering  that's what it is it's data gathering   i'm going to cut some more cardboard and make  some more antennas and get things ready for the   location shoot i'm actually none of the actual  shape problem solving is going to happen here   i'm just going to be making shapes here all the  actual in-situ uh explorations will happen on   the location just only a few minutes away in  this video but for me it's like two whole days   here is my second antenna this is just  the head of that industrial flashlight   sorry uh consumer uh triple double-a  flashlight stuck to the end of a piece of   polyethylene i think and i'm just  gonna thread the wire through it oh right let's do a test of the circuit why  not frame me in the center while we're at it   during the time lapses the music  i'm listening to today is the   soundtrack to the man yep oh man i still  can i say i still love this soldering iron   it's uh one that runs off my dewalt batteries  all right let's do a quick uh quick test system   test if i got this right hey there  we go oh yeah you can't even see it   uh you still can't see it because i  don't have light in it there we go yeah nice i like that um i need to put on i need to  tape on my glass panel light i would use a red   one because it's a little brighter than the  green but i don't have any red ones left oh   i do have a red one but it's like gigantic it's  like the size of a cow eyeball why would i use   that as a size reference i've never even no i  have touched a cow by a ball not on a living cow   i am not gluing these in because these panel  lights this isn't the last thing that they do   i am literally only using  my panel lights temporarily   um these are the kind of beautiful objects i  save for a rainy day and by rainy day i mean   a thing i want to build that is  more beautiful because of them   so i am normally i would glue  such a thing but today i will not   because i want to reuse it someday all right  let's see if i can still get this battery   going yep yep there we go that is a light  oh yeah it's a good nostril inspection light one thing that is really tough about the self  stick velcro man it sticks to everything which is   great but it also sticks with your scissors which  means every time you use a pair of scissors to   work with the velcro you want to take a little bit  of acetone or bestine and clean the gummo off the   off the blades because they yeah they just start  messing with your persuasion immediately so yeah the the gum on this velcro is super tenacious  which is good you want it that way you just don't   want it sticking to your tools this is just me  attaching a little velcro to help these body   forms stay on i want to label this so what i'm  going to do here is i'm going to actually cut off i definitely want some  stickum back here for antennae head i want i want a head i want um  some kind of neck some kind of neck okay i have a head that i was thinking of playing   around with this and it's this  guy it's this lizard yeah because i know that like there's that horse head mask  and i was on amazon and i searched animal mask   and i found this one which is kind of awesome and it struck  me as like i haven't seen one of these   oh man is his eye actually  moving no it's not but it really   looks like it moves wow uh so  anyway i was thinking of this right i mean yeah i i gotta try  the animal thing i have to i'm not sure i want a head on this thing i'm  very not sure but i am sure that i want to try   so   the shop is suitably a mess i have packed my car  and i'm now taking all the cardboard bits and   bobs and gripleys and nurnies for spot and they're  loaded into my car out front and i'm about to take   them out on location where we're gonna we're gonna  work our show work ourselves through a taxonomy of   spot forms yeah i am super excited about today  a note about the footage you are about to see   you're going to see me working directly with spot  and close to him and i'm going to look like i'm   comfortable and that's because i am that comfort  is based on a year of institutional knowledge   built on working directly with the wonder that  is spot um if you think that i'm being cavalier   in terms of my proximity to him know that  nothing could be farther from the truth all   of us here at tested as we have worked with spot  are very cognizant of the dangers and are being   incredibly careful when we're around him while his  motors are powered with that being said let's get   to the location all right that's the last of  his bits and bobs there's a spot spot come on come right here come here come on  right here perfect stop excellent okay so uh i have here some basic rudiments of  stuff to put on spot i have three different leg   designs and these are clunky on purpose they're  meant to stick there and let me see what he looks   like with different shapes on him i'll also be  using a hot glue gun to potentially add cardboard   to these to kind of change their  shape and then i also have a back which sits there and i can stick the antenna  on the bag i can uh oh i put hook velcro and   hook velcro on both sides of that equation that's  why that didn't work i have here a neck this i'm   excited about because i've got some head options  to put up here oh my god it's totally weird okay   that's i'm saving that because that's gonna be  really weird and cool um i'm hoping to get like six or seven different looks today  that's my goal six or seven kind of   radically different ideas  of form around spot's body   and i think i'm gonna start with the clunkiest  possible thing which is like these guys i want to see yeah this is weird but i  just want to see it oh he doesn't like that   okay so these mess with with his ability  to see but what do they do on the back no no no no no he definitely that's that's just does  not work okay let's definitely get this shot it's   not awesome but it's sort of like the first step  i think this is the first uh let's try looking   what he looks like on a walk uh on a walking  sequence with this because what we're doing   today is effectively a set of motion studies  we've put lines on the wall not just because i   love lines on the wall from my mythbuster days  but also because the very first motion studies   ever done by edward muybridge effectively the  inventor of cinema were done in this same way   with people against a gridded background and i  wanted the same thing for my taxonomy of spot movement ah yes okay so these are out these don't work  they're too bulky it's the first thing i've   learned and this is what this whole exercise was  to learn what immediately works and what doesn't   and then give me ideas about where to go with it  big shoulders number one they get in the way of   his vision abilities um but they also frankly he  looks a lot friendlier when his body's a little   bigger but his legs stay the same to me however  i have a set of smaller legs so let's try these do   i'm gonna let him rest for a minute  there's another thing i want to try   i want to try sneakers on spot uh i  believe he wears size six 18 to 24   months toddler shoes look at how cute  these are i've turned off his motors okay apparently one of the tougher engineering  challenges on spot was the specific material   science of his feet because they got to act  like shoes right they have to be this very   durable kind of rubber yeah so this may change  him a little bit but i also it's gonna change his   perception a lot i think we have a new  modification of the shortest story ever   for sale baby shoes only worn once by a robot ah  well i guess we're just gonna learn how he deals   i kind of i'm nervous about him  pulling the shoes off just standing up   so i'm going to kind of get him into a close  position yeah all right now turning on his motor it's sort of funny to me that  i spent 10 or 12 hours making a   whole bunch of little cardboard things and  thinking about his look and the sneakers   have done more than anything i could have  conceived to alter his character i'm a little   afraid that the moment i started walking he's just  going to like kick them all off like any toddler but here we go the fears the feet are so important just seeing  feet just seeing like the anatomy on this is   making such a huge difference i know they need to  be balls but you could easily do something like   this and it wouldn't affect him too much ah that's  great i'm gonna leave them on until they fall off   i really dig these that's my first part  of this that i'm like yes feet a-okay   it's time to visit this neck of the woods oh i have steadfastly resisted doing this because  i'm not sure i think there should be faces   on our robots so i bought the most robot  like face i could think of which is a lizard so i must admit i'm surprised by how much i like   the head and the neck i am curious  about changing its form factor slightly   and i think that's the next thing i'm going  to do is i'm going to cut away some of that   cardboard and make it a leaner finer  neck and see how that changes the look oh dr demento but the leaner neck   i have another creature head it's not nearly as  warm and inviting as the lizard but it's worth   trying got this cthulhu mask that i bought a while  back on etsy i was just curious you know i'm gonna   add more sympathetic movement just because i'm  curious about what it could look like i'm making   a bunch of like it's like i'm making a mythical  creature that an eight-year-old would draw so so the feathers the feathers were interesting but i  don't think they add anything except i really like   the ears the reason i went with this blocky head  is because i wanted to see the difference between   like a personifiable head and clearly like a  mechanical head and i'm here to say i don't mind   the straight mechanical head i i don't put any  narrative onto this so it's less cute but for my   money that's actually kind of better um i am going  to shorten the head i'm going to bring it down to   here and see how i like it there i just want to  look at both iterations it's a really interesting   question here because there's a lot we can play  with he the head could go here it can go here see   the difference it can't go here that just looks  like he's looking behind him and that's just like   this is all about what your immediate intuition  of the robot is right you make all of these   assessments so i love playing around with this  cute not cute animal not animal kind of metric   and actually i think proportionally  that's better yeah he's smaller just interested in slightly bigger bigger  back that's all again all this is just to   build a library i'm not trying to solve the  problem i'm actually trying to figure out   how to start solving a problem that's what this  is all about a taxonomy of form like those ears he feels great so do i didn't expect to like this look so much  we've got a very animalistic kind of small   deer kind of look even with this boxy  head and camera for a nose i'm sort of   impressed how much i like this i still don't  know that this is how robots should look but   you know i was playing around with forms and  this is a form that appeals to me i'm going to   try this one and i think after this i may go with  a much less animal-like neck and see how i like   that and then i think i think i've got all the  information i currently need for this iteration so a little helpful hint every glue gun  can be cordless for a little while so i love the sensitivity with  which he does the reverse jog   now i'm going to take everything off i'm going  to do one more walk cycle naked because now i   have a whole bunch of information a whole bunch  of data about what he looks like with different   types of stuff on his body i want to go back to  the beginning and look at him without anything that's it ah no i'm gonna leave the shoes on so  as i'm looking at him without anything on him   i'm noticing there's a very specific thing that  i'm doing when i regard him which is if he has   nothing else on him i think of this as the  face and it's a weird place for a face because it's not how animals it's not where  we put our faces evolutionarily   um so that's one thing that's right there pretty  interesting to me that as i move him around   yeah it's like i need him to have some base of  operations that's not here that's that's pretty   clear to me after looking at him under all these  parameters and that's not what i expected i mean   i still see when i look at this it's not creepy  even one iota i just think of it as beautiful efficient gorgeous engineering  yeah i'm talking to you yes yes but it's just really clear to me that that's a weird  place for a head and it's where i'm putting his   head mentally and i didn't realize that until  i put it somewhere else and tried this out that   right there is that's worth the price of admission  today was like a good day and dialing into this look i know that we didn't build a beautiful  robot today but that was never the point   he's already a beautiful robot um no the point  today was to understand how spot looks under   all sorts of different parameters and in that  it was a huge success and it's actually crazy   educational to have added all this bulk to him  in different formats and then see him naked again   helps me understand some of the  ways in which people perceive him   because he's literally built as small as he can be  so that functionality can be added and i think of   his fascia as part of his functionality as far as  continuing from what we've learned today i don't   think i'm a good enough designer uh it's not what  i do professionally yes i can design stuff but   i think i need someone with a solid background in  character design with the crossover in industrial   design to take a look at the taxonomy that  we've built and take spot to the next level   but that's not this video that's definitely  another future video thank you guys for joining   me for this really educational and frequently  hilarious one-day build i'll see you next time thank you so much for watching that video if  you'd like to further support us on tested there   are many ways you can do so one is through paid  membership and there are several tiers of that   each with their own set of unique bonuses  you can follow the links below for that   or you can go to our merch store where we  are always coming up with brand new products   in honor of the holidays we've got our tested  ugly sweater in both black and we have a white   one we have some brand new patches and this is a  particular type that i made a joke about one day   and now it's a reality you know merit badges when  you're a cub scout or a boy scout you get a merit   badge for achieving something well tested now has  demerit badges for when you screw something up   because that's just as important in  learning as getting something right   so this is the badge for when you measure  something once and have to cut it twice   this is the badge for when you accidentally  hook up your electronics wrong and you release   the mysterious blue smoke that powers them  and they no longer work and this one here   is for when you get your finger caught in the  lathe it almost gets torn off that might be quite   me specific i hope that never happens to you these  are all designed by tested's own gen schachter   and they are not the only patches we're going to  release in fact these are just the beginning if   you have ideas for demerit badges that we should  release we'd love to hear them we also still have   our regular complement of posters and they're all  back in stock including my hand-drawn tool boxes   i love seeing pictures you guys send us of these  hanging in your maker spaces and your offices your   man caves and your sheds around the world get to  the store follow the links below and hey some of   these might make great christmas presents for the  makers in your life thanks you guys happy holidays

Channel: Adam Savage’s Tested

Views: 415,271

Rating: 4.853158 out of 5

Keywords: testedcom, adam savage, boston dynamics, legged locomotion, robot dog, boston dynamics spot, spot mini, boston dynamics robot, artificial intelligence, walking robot, black mirror, boston dynamics dog, machine learning projects, adam savage's tested, spotmini dance, spotmini robot, rough-terrain vehicle, robot dog boston dynamics, black mirror metalhead dog, adam savage robot dog, adam savage boston dynamics, adam savage tested, adam savage mythbusters, spot robot, robots

Id: -R8wUybrspo

Length: 43min 27sec (2607 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 23 2020