Chinese Tech Giant Xiaomi Launches Cyberdog Robot
Image: Xiaomi
Xiaomi, the Chinese tech giant has revealed CyberDog, an open-source quadrupedal robot that the company claims “holds unforeseen possibilities.” CyberDog is the latest in the growing development of quadrupedal robots. In 2015, Boston Dynamics, debuted the “Spot” quadrupedal robotic dog that is now employed with some law enforcement departments in the United States.
It’s unclear what Xiaomi plans are for CyberDog. The firm highlighted the open-source nature of the machine’s design in a news statement, saying it would initially offer only 1,000 machines for “Xiaomi Fans, engineers, and robotic aficionados.” The company is pricing the robot to sell in the hopes that these early buyers would propel the development and potential of quadruped robots.
CyberDog’s features “pet-like” characteristics including the ability to respond to voice commands and follow its master like a real dog. However, based on the images of CyberDog, it’s obvious that Xiaomi is gearing the Cyberdog for security, surveillance and even military applications in the near future. Unlike Sony’s Aibo robot canine which is a true cuddly adorable robotic dog, Cyberdog is large, sleek and amy appear intimidating to some.
Xiaomi claims Cyberdog is agile and can execute backflips, has a maximum payload of 3kg, and can trot around at 3.2m/s which is faster than Spot’s 1.6m/s. It runs on Nvidia’s Jetson Xavier AI platform and includes a wide variety of cameras and sensors. Touch sensors, a GPS module, an ultra-wide-angle fisheye lens, and Intel’s RealSense D450 depth-sensing camera are among the features.
CyberDog can study its environment in real time, plot its goal, develop navigational maps, and avoid impediments. CyberDog is capable of following its owner and darting around obstacles when combined with human posture and facial recognition tracking, according to Xiaomi. The release of CyberDog by Xiaomi comes at at time when robotic dogs are growing in popularity for variety of applications both military and civilian.
