SpotMini
The viral 2018 video of two SpotMinis cooperating to open a door has 60M+ views.
In one sentence
SpotMini is the small electric robot dog Boston Dynamics built before Spot — its viral 'two robots open a door' video introduced the world to legged robotics.
The wow factor
Three things that make SpotMini genuinely impressive.
Its 2018 door-opening cooperation video has 60M+ views.
Boston Dynamics' first major all-electric (non-hydraulic) robot.
Evolved into the commercial Spot product line.
How it works
A step-by-step breakdown, in plain English.
- 1Four electric leg motors with batteries — no hydraulics.
- 2Side-mounted cameras + LIDAR build a 3D world model.
- 3A 5-DOF arm on the back opens doors, picks up objects.
- 4Motion-planning runs at high frequency to maintain balance.
- 5Self-righting algorithms recover from falls.
Where you've probably seen it
The "two SpotMinis open a door" video became one of the most-watched robotics videos ever, with appearances in many news segments and corporate keynotes.
The team behind it
Boston Dynamics, founded by Marc Raibert. SpotMini development overlapped with the broader Spot programme.
The full story
SpotMini was unveiled by Boston Dynamics in 2016 as a smaller, all-electric quadruped designed for indoor use. Unlike the larger hydraulic Spot (BigDog ancestor), SpotMini ran on batteries, weighed only 30 kg, and was quiet enough for home and office environments. Boston Dynamics showed SpotMini opening doors, climbing stairs, navigating around obstacles, and even loading a dishwasher. SpotMini was eventually merged into the production Spot product (launched 2019).
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SpotMini in 2 minutes
Learn the science behind SpotMini
Three Atlas entries that explain how SpotMini actually works.
Mind-blowing facts
The viral 2018 video of two SpotMinis cooperating to open a door has been viewed over 60 million times.
SpotMini was eventually rebranded and absorbed into the commercial Spot product line.
SpotMini was Boston Dynamics' first major electric (non-hydraulic) robot.