Robotics

Xiaomi joins the pack with $1,500 CyberDog robot that does backflips

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Xiaomi describes its CyberDog as an open-source robot companion
Xiaomi
Xiaomi will be releasing 1,000 units of its CyberDog robot
Xiaomi
Chinese consumer technology company Xiaomi released its first-generation CyberDog quadruped robot in 2021, with a complete makeover (inside and out including the deep integration of artificial intelligence) when Cyberdog 2 was released in August 2023. It's still a China-only product for now, where it sells for 13,000 yuan (US$1,825). At that price, we're suggesting the quadruped's capabilities will follow the same price-performance curve as drones did.
Xiaomi
Like Boston Dynamics' Spot, Xiaomi's CyberDog is inspired by our four-legged friends
Xiaomi
Xiaomi describes its CyberDog as an open-source robot companion
Xiaomi
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Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi has unveiled its first commercial quadruped robot, and its design might be one that keen watchers of the space are familiar with. The newly introduced CyberDog is a quadruped robot inspired by our four-legged friends, and it bears a lot of similarities with the impressive Spot developed by Boston Dynamics, though costs just a fraction of that robot's US$75,000 price.

The CyberDog is loaded with servo motors that allow it to trot along at speeds of up to 11.5 km/h (7 mph), and packs a range of cameras and sensors that enable it to navigate around obstacles with centimeter-scale accuracy. These include touch sensors, GPS modules, ultrasonic sensors, a wide-angle fisheye camera and AI interactive cameras, with the robot able to be trained by computer vision algorithms to find its way around different environments.

Chinese consumer technology company Xiaomi released its first-generation CyberDog quadruped robot in 2021, with a complete makeover (inside and out including the deep integration of artificial intelligence) when Cyberdog 2 was released in August 2023. It's still a China-only product for now, where it sells for 13,000 yuan (US$1,825). At that price, we're suggesting the quadruped's capabilities will follow the same price-performance curve as drones did.
Xiaomi

Not only is the robot capable of doing backflips, it can recognize human posture and faces and therefore be made to follow its owner or other subjects. It will also respond to voice commands via a six-microphone array, and can be controlled via a smartphone app or the included remote control.

The engine room of the operation is NVIDIA's Jetson Xavier NX supercomputer, which guides the CyberDog through its different tasks and stores the data collected by its sensors on the 128-GB onboard SSD.

Like Boston Dynamics' Spot, Xiaomi's CyberDog is inspired by our four-legged friends
Xiaomi

Xiaomi is positioning the CyberDog as an open source platform for developers to build on for various applications. It comes with three type-C ports and an HDMI port to accommodate extra hardware, with search lights, panoramic cameras and LiDAR just a few of the examples put forward. To that end, rather than a wide release for consumers, it's beginning with a release of 1,000 units to "robotic enthusiasts," each for a price of CN¥9,999 (approx. US$1,550).

You can see the robot do a backflip along with some other neat tricks in the demonstration video below.

Source: Mi

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7 comments
Excalibur2811
SPOT was always far to expensive, although I can understand the need to recoup research fees.
Still it's a bit of a mystery as to how Xiaomi are managing to sell this at such a low price..
Daishi
The is another company in China named Weilan that launched a similar robot named "AlphaDog" (which is the same name used by Boston Dynamics for their early prototype) early this year. The low end version was a smaller less capable version than the Xiaomi one for about $5,500 with other higher end models from $12,000 to $28,000 meant to be used for industrial inspection. Considering the closest thing Weilan sells to the Xiaomi is about $18,000 I assume the price will go up after they ship the first 1000 review/developer units.
Derek Howe
Did they at least send a Thank You note to Boston Dynamics?
Adrian Chant
Can it perform the functions of a seeing eye dog? If so, where can I get one?
Eddy
I heard Boston Robotics has just been sold. They will never compete with this mob as no R & D expense is required it seems to jump to the cutting edge of robotics. No hard fought for expensive experience is safe now it seems if the knowledge is stored on internet-connected computers.
ljaques
Gee, I saw at least $25 worth of actions/movement by the cyberdog in the video. $1,550? How are they getting that MUCH for them, Excal?
HoppyHopkins
That thing does not look like any dog on the planet. There are toy robot dogs that can follow you and respond to commands. When these robot companies make a robot that actually look like dogs, horses and mules, then they can call their product a robot version of some animal. If they need help visualizing, all they need to do is look at the RPG Rifts game books