At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Xiaomi presents its CyberDog robot dog. For now, it’s more of a toy than a real technological breakthrough.
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, you usually see smartphones, tablets and PCs. When we are tired of always coming across the same things, we can surrender at the Xiaomi booth. In the midst of dozens of smartphones, the Chinese manufacturer exhibits its transparent TV, its fryer, its vacuum cleaners, its scooters and… its robot dog. Indeed, Xiaomi is behind the CyberDog project, which it is exhibiting for the first time in Barcelona.
A $1,500 demo
What about CyberDog? Strangely, he is rather cute. Very close aesthetically to Boston Dynamics robots, from which it is inspired, Xiaomi’s electronic dog is still a prototype. The model we saw in Barcelona can do two things: toddle and sit. The rest of the functions, such as the ability to do somersaults, respond to voice commands or execute commands, will come later.
Eventually, Xiaomi imagines real things for its mechanical dog. For example, the brand dreams of making it a pet for people with disabilities, who could use it to transport objects or fetch things (it supports up to 3 kilos). Xiaomi also imagines a robot dog capable of detecting a fall and calling the authorities. Everything works in the form of an open project, it is up to the developers to propose new functionalities.
For now, it is not possible to adopt a CyberDog. Xiaomi mentions the price of $1,500, but it is reserved for companies that would like to work on the project. Until its possible commercialization, it is to be hoped that the robot dog knows many more things.