Operate
Supported daily demonstrations and hands-on visitor sessions with Spot in a high-traffic environment.
Robotics and AI Institute · CambridgeSide · Summer 2025
Robots in public,
not behind closed doors.
I helped deploy, operate, and troubleshoot Spot in a ten-week public Robot Lab—turning a busy mall into a place where thousands of people could meet advanced robots firsthand.
01 The Robot Lab
A robotics lab with
the doors wide open.
The exhibit placed historical robots, current research platforms, and a visitor-controlled Spot side by side. This walkthrough starts with the yellow Spot behind the glass and moves through the full public lab.
26 sec · CambridgeSide, Cambridge, MA
10weeks in public
10,943visitors
753matched surveys
3×dance routines daily
02 My role
Making advanced robots feel dependable.
A public deployment changes the engineering problem. The robot needs to work repeatedly, recover clearly, and remain approachable for people with no robotics experience.
Debug
Maintained and troubleshot more than $1M in advanced robotics equipment, handling electromechanical issues and field recovery.
Learn
Translated recurring technical issues and visitor feedback into recommendations for reliability, recovery, and human-robot interaction.
03 Field notes
Spot met people
where they were.
Visitors could watch Spot dance, then take control through an accessible interface and guide it over a modular obstacle course.
04 In the news
The Boston Globe · July 29, 2025
“Want to control Spot, the four-legged dancing robot?”
The Globe visited the pop-up and photographed me supporting a family as they controlled Spot—capturing the kind of direct, welcoming interaction the exhibit was built to create.
Read the Boston Globe feature ↗05 Published research
What changed after people drove Spot?
The public exhibit became the setting for a peer-reviewed HRI study led by researchers at RAI. Across 753 matched pre- and post-interaction surveys, hands-on control significantly increased comfort with robots across every rated setting.
Comfort grew
The largest increase appeared in outdoor and disaster-response contexts—the kind of terrain visitors experienced directly.
Perceptions broadened
After the interaction, participants imagined a more diverse set of roles for robots, including entertainment and companionship.
Effects generalized
Attitudes improved beyond each visitor's assigned scene, suggesting a short encounter can shift broader expectations.
HRI 2026
View paper ↗