Lenovo probably isn't the first brand that springs to mind if you're on the lookout for a robot dog to patrol your warehouse, but its Shanghai innovations lab has been building bots for a few years now. The latest hasn't been officially announced, but we can get a taste for what's coming courtesy of an iF Design Award.
The most well-known robodog is of course Spot from Boston Dynamics, which has patrolled Pompeii, kept tabs on construction progress at Battersea, helped out during the COVID-19 pandemic and even performed a tribute to the Rolling Stones.
But there are other notable members of the canine bot pack, including ANYmal and Go2. Another pup has now been birthed from a seemingly unlikely source, global consumer tech giant Lenovo. One that stands out from the current crop thanks to running with an extra pair of legs.
Robo design and implementation is not a brand new endeavor for the Lenovo though, the company's Daystar division currently has four industrial robots in its portfolio. There's a wheeled inspection bot called the D1 designed to patrol facilities and keep watch over equipment, the four-wheeled X1 that sports a robot arm and vision tower, a human-height campus rover called the S1 that can be teleoperated via AR glasses, and a four-legged robodog called the Q1 that's built to navigate complex environments and tackle challenging terrain.
The Bot GS hasn't yet made it to Daystar's available products pages, but we do know that it's expected to be made available to Asian markets some time this year. That's thanks to it winning an iF Design Award in the Product and Industry categories.
The listing explains that its six-legged design should give it "unmatched stability and maneuverability" when tackling diverse terrain – though it will have to go some to surpass the athletic prowess of ETH Zurich's latest ANYmal research prototype. No doubt performance specs and video footage will be released closer to the launch window.
Its front-facing sensors and LiDAR/radar top hat will feed "cutting-edge perception algorithms" to help it navigate, avoid obstacles and inspect industrial facilities. Like other robodog solutions, it can accept additional equipment like cameras and a robot arm on its back, and it will likely be able to squat during charging. It's weather-proofed to IP66 standards too, for outdoor site patrols come rain or shine.
The Daystar Bot GS is aimed squarely at trade, industry, government and the public sector so will have a price tag to match, and like Lenovo's other robot helpers, you're unlikely to see one outside of Asia.
Source: iF Design
