If the launch of the new Mix 4 smartphone and the Mi Pad 5 tablet is not enough for you, Xiaomi has shipped with something special: it is CyberDog , his own open source robot dog.
This is a “bio-inspired quadruped” , as mentioned the signature during the official announcement. Logically, the aesthetics and the type of device automatically remind us of Spot, from Boston Dynamics, but their purpose is very different.
In this case it was thought as an Open Source companion dog ; This means that developers around the world can freely work and experiment on it.
“Robotics enthusiasts interested in CyberDog can compete or co-create with other Xiaomi fans of ideas related, promoting together the development and potential of quadruped robots “, indicated the firm.
According to Xiaomi's announcement, the CyberDog is” a real beast “that has a navigation and obstacle detection system that is accurate to the centimeter . This is possible thanks to the implementation of the Intel RealSense D450 depth module, accompanied by interactive cameras with AI and ultra wide angle “fisheye” binoculars.
The robot dog has servo motors of high performance, developed by Xiaomi, to make it as versatile as possible. According to the Chinese company, the maximum torque is 32 newton · meters, while the rotational speed reaches 220 revolutions per minute. This allows CyberDog to be fast, agile and has a wide range of movements . In fact, its manufacturers indicate that it can perform various maneuvers at high speed, being able to travel up to 3.2 meters per second. But that's not all, since it is also capable of doing backflips, among other types of “complicated actions”.
CyberDog, Xiaomi's robot dog, wants be the “ideal friend” of the Open Source community
As we mentioned previously, the Xiaomi CyberDog comes with a navigation system that allows you to analyze your environment and interact with great fluidity. But this is not all. The robot dog also comes equipped with an arsenal of sensors that provide “instant feedback” to guide its movements. In addition to the cameras, it includes touch and ultrasonic sensors, and GPS modules , among others.
In this way, the device is capable of scanning your surroundings in real time, create navigation maps and plan your route. And as if all this were not enough, Xiaomi has equipped the CyberDog with the necessary technology to recognize the face and posture of humans . Thus, it is able to identify its owner and follow him without encountering obstacles.
In addition, the Chinese company wants to make it clear that its robotic dog is really intelligent:
CyberDog's brain is powered by NVIDIA's Jetson Xavier NX platform, an artificial intelligence supercomputer which includes 384 CUDA cores, 48 Tensor Cores, 6 ARM Carmel CPUs and 2 deep learning acceleration engines.
But Xiaomi's CyberDog wouldn't be a good companion dog if it couldn't respond at the word of their owners. Therefore, users can control the robot through voice commands . Thus, it is possible to configure keywords to wake it up, as well as to carry out different actions.
Xiaomi invites you to experiment with its robot dog
Xiaomi insists that it has built the CyberDog in order for it to be adopted by the Open Source community. In fact, the robot itself has been created using open source algorithms.
It also has USB and HDMI ports, and a 128 GB SSD so that developers can take advantage of them and experiment with new software and hardware . On the other hand, the company has committed to establishing a robotics laboratory for engineers interested in advancing with innovations.
Xiaomi has launched a thousand units of the CyberDog at a price of 9,999 yuan (little more than $ 1,500), intended for “fans of the brand, engineers and robotics enthusiasts.” What do you think of this Open Source robot dog? We read them.
