More than 300 Boston Dynamics employees have signed a petition calling on executives to halt a sale of the company's quadruped robots to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A Department of Homeland Security contract dated 25 September 2026 awarded $1.3 million to Radeco, a Connecticut company. Executives stood by the decision and said the robots will not be weaponised.
Key takeaways
- The contract covers four Spot robots modified by Radeco and marketed as the Cerberus platform
- The petition gathered more than 300 signatures — half of them anonymous — from a workforce of roughly 1,400
- The contract's stated justification: counter-illicit cross-border tunnel operations and dismantling human smuggling networks
- Spot's terms of sale prohibit using the product to harm or intimidate any person or animal
- Boston Dynamics is building a $100 million robotics and AI centre in Waltham, with 1,250 new jobs by 2033
What exactly is ICE buying?
The contract covers four Spot robots from Boston Dynamics. They are not bought directly, though. Radeco modifies them and sells them as a separate platform called Cerberus.
In the contract document, Cerberus is described as a robot for detecting radiation, toxic gas leaks and explosive threats — in urban environments or disaster zones. Remote observation and inspection are added on top.
The centrepiece of the modification is an oxygen sensor. It is meant to confirm the air is breathable before people enter a confined space such as a tunnel.
| Component | Function per the contract description |
|---|---|
| Oxygen sensor | Confirms air in a confined space is breathable |
| Camera with 30× zoom | Observation from a distance |
| 360-degree cameras | Full view around the robot |
| Infrared thermal imaging | Detection without ambient light |
| Optional Spot arm | Object manipulation, opening doors, extra camera views |
The contract also describes the robot as able to navigate complex industrial environments on its own and execute "repeatable autonomous missions?autonomous mission: A task the robot performs on its own, without an operator steering it step by step. with minimal human intervention".
Why object, if the robot is there to sniff for gas in tunnels?
The dispute is not about sensors. It is about which part of ICE gets the robots and what that part actually does.
Which unit gets the robots
Boston Dynamics emphasises that the hardware goes mainly to the Homeland Security Investigations unit, which handles transnational organised crime. The petition answers with a different set of facts.
The Brennan Center for Justice has documented that same unit repeatedly taking part in deporting undocumented workers and conducting workplace raids. That ran from 2018 to 2021, before the operations were halted by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas early in Joe Biden's term.
In Donald Trump's second term, from January 2025, the unit again diverted thousands of agents to immigration enforcement — after an executive order redefined its primary mission. That is how the Immigration Policy Tracking Project describes it.
The raid at Hyundai's factory
The petition points to a specific case. On 4 September 2025 an ICE and HSI raid detained 475 workers — mostly South Korean nationals — at the Metaplant America factory owned by Hyundai Motor Group in Georgia.
That same company has owned Boston Dynamics since June 2021. It is precisely this entanglement that employees found indefensible.
We cannot be proud of working at Boston Dynamics when that work is being used by a government agency that brutalizes civilians, including some of our own colleagues at Hyundai.
From the Boston Dynamics employee petition, quoted by The Boston Globe and the WBUR radio station.
What do these names mean?
Three different entities and two different units are easy to confuse in this case.
- ICE — US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Department of Homeland Security.
- HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) — the investigative unit inside ICE. Formally it handles transnational crime rather than deportations as such.
- ERO (Enforcement & Removal Operations) — the ICE unit directly responsible for detentions and removals. The petition states that its objections cover the whole organisation, not only ERO.
- Radeco — the Connecticut company that buys Spots, bolts on sensors and sells the result as Cerberus. An integrator rather than a manufacturer.
- Cerberus — the trade name of a modified Spot with military-grade equipment for detecting dangerous substances.
That split is the heart of the dispute: the manufacturer sells hardware to an integrator, and only the integrator sells it to the agency. In that chain, Boston Dynamics is to provide mainly technical support.
What does the sales chain look like?
This is a simplified view of the supply chain described in the documents, not the full contracting procedure.
What did management say?
Management stood by the contract. According to The Boston Globe, Boston Dynamics' role is to be limited mainly to technical support for the modified robots.
The reply to the petition came by email from Amanda McMaster, previously the company's interim CEO. She wrote that the decision aligns with the purpose of "ethically advancing intelligent machines in service of humanity", and asked workers to accept it even if they disagree.
McMaster also pointed to Spot's terms of sale. They prohibit intentional use of the product to harm or intimidate any person or animal, as a weapon, or to enable any weapon. The company had earlier signed an open letter opposing the weaponisation of general-purpose mobile robots.
A Boston Dynamics spokesperson told Ars Technica the company has worked with the Department of Homeland Security and the HSI unit for years, and that HSI had abided by the terms of sale.
Spot robots are tools that help keep people out of harm's way. Regardless of any political implications or personal feelings about the organizations involved, if our robot can help keep people safe, we believe it should.
A Boston Dynamics spokesperson, in a statement to Ars Technica.
The company said it would act immediately on any misuse of Spot — voiding the warranty, refusing software updates, terminating the licence, taking legal action, and likely never selling to that customer again. It noted that no customer has breached those terms so far.
Is it live yet?
The contract is awarded, delivery is not confirmed as completed. The Department of Homeland Security agreement with Radeco is dated 25 September 2026 and covers four robots.
The petition was sent to executives in early September 2026, before the contract was awarded. Management refused, and copies of the petition went to The Boston Globe and the WBUR radio station.
Why does it matter?
This is the first case in which Boston Dynamics' contractual restrictions were tested not by a weaponised robot but by the identity of the buyer. The objection came from its own staff, and the parent company is itself an injured party in the raid the petition cites.
What comes next?
- Boston Dynamics is building a robotics and AI centre in Waltham — a $100 million project due to create 1,250 jobs by 2033, with phased move-in starting in mid-2027.
- Hyundai Motor Group is keeping production running at Metaplant America and still plans to deploy thousands of Atlas humanoids, starting at its US facilities.
- Spot's terms of sale remain the only control mechanism on the manufacturer's side — their real test comes only with the first reported breach.
