Tests conducted by GlobalFoundries For semiconductor fab site inspection, Boston Dynamics' Spot robot dog

In its Burlington factory, the company collaborates with AI firm Levatas on gauge reading and thermal inspection software.

Spot was evaluated by the corporation in collaboration with software developer Levatas to see if it could be used for gauge reading and external temperature checks of equipment, as well as relaying notifications to the facilities crew if anything needed to be done. 

Levatas develops machine learning software for gauge readings and thermal temperature measurements that may be used on drones like Boston Dynamics' Spot and DJI's Inspire 2.

"That data is going to provide us the opportunity to better manage maintenance time and downtime and ideally also eliminate scrap incidents," Adrian Plouffe, manufacturing and automation engineer for GlobalFoundries, said. 

Novva Data Centers, sponsored by CIM Group and helmed by former C7 CEO Wes Swenson, has teamed up with Utah's Brigham Young University to deploy specialised Spot dogs in its data centre in West Jordan, Utah.

"Spot has incredible athletic intelligence... but doesn't always know what it's looking at," said Dan Zuba, Levatas' Vice President of Business Development and Growth.  

"We can train Spot to understand what it's looking at and then make decisions based on that information; this equipment is too hot, or maybe there's something trending, and we're anticipating that this has to be fixed before it goes out," says the researcher. 

"We have a lot of peripheral equipment that is critical to keeping the fab running, so being able to get more data about that equipment and how it's performing is really important to our team," Garrison said, adding that the ability to keep the fab running during the implementation process was a plus.

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