Boston Dynamics Spot draws crowds; robotic 'guinea pig' soothes older visitors at Tampere demos

Business Tampere said Tampere University will stage public demonstrations at the Robostudio in Hervanta and at the PING.Tampere technology event on 20 March 2026, bringing a Boston Dynamics Spot, a clicking cat droid and an electric 'guinea pig' to the shows. Spot drew a crowd.

Aino Ahtinen, a university lecturer at the Robostudio, said she hopes the machines will encourage physical activity and get people outdoors. "I would like to promote physical activity, especially in nature. Robots a bit like our Spot — capable machines that people could take outdoors for hikes or even wilderness trips without them giving up halfway," Ahtinen said. She added she would like to see robots manufactured in Finland.

At the studio, researchers study social robots — machines designed to interact using voice, gestures and touch. Ahtinen called Spot "actually unsocial, but we use it for social purposes," and noted the team adapts industrial platforms for interaction research. Postdoctoral researcher Salla Jarske, whose doctoral work blends human-centred design with ethnomethodological interaction research, has examined how robots establish social relations and support human activities.

Visitors showed clear age-related preferences: children flocked to Spot and enjoyed contests — one push-up challenge reached about a hundred repetitions before the youngsters stopped — while older attendees preferred stroking the cat droid and the simple electric guinea pig, which reacts to touch and makes small sounds to soothe people. PING.Tampere will highlight physical AI, bringing companies, researchers and students together to explore learning, connected and interactive machines.