Quadruped

Around this time last year, Chinese robotics company Unitree caught our attention with the impressive circus tricks and GPT chat capabilities of its $1,600 second-generation robot dog. Now the company has wheeled out an all-terrain upgrade.

This nifty little quadruped robot has been trained to seek and eliminate litter by researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology, using a vacuum cleaner backpack with nozzles strapped to its ankles.

Scientists have created a four-legged bio-inspired robot that climbs like no other. It clings to rough vertical surfaces utilizing a unique mechanism that is highly effective, yet at the same time relatively simple.

You might think that having four legs with wheels on the ends would already make a robot pretty useful. China's LimX Dynamics is taking things further, however, as its W1 quadruped robot is now able to stand up and walk on two "feet."

A robo-dog capable of throwing 30-ft flames from its back might seem the stuff of sci-fi nightmares, but such terrors were made real last year with the launch of the Thermonator. Now the fire-breathing quadruped is available to buy for under $10k.

The XPeng Unicorn is a pony-sized robotic companion with the foundations to become much more. Shown to the world for the first time this week at the Bangkok International Motor Show, the Unicorn has the potential to become a market maker.

ANYmal is a truly remarkable robot, capable of standing and lifting things like a humanoid, or slinking around on all fours like a quadruped, with or without wheels. But what's really surprised us now is the eerie grace it's starting to move with.

While Boston Dynamics may have pioneered the field of quadruped "robot dogs," Chinese company Unitree has definitely done a good job of jumping on board. Its latest industrial robot, the B2, offers some major improvements over its predecessor.

A four-legged robotic dog called HOUND has demonstrated an unprecedented level of agility and speed, clocking the fastest 100-meter dash ever achieved by a quadruped robot and setting a new Guinness World Record in the process.

While seeing-eye dogs can be very helpful to the blind, raising and training them is a long and expensive process. Scientists have therefore recently started investigating the possibility of outsourcing the job to dog-like quadruped robots.

Two years ago we first heard about the Swiss-Mile Robot, a quadruped bot with powered wheels on the ends of its four legs. It's now in for some competition, as China's LimX Dynamics has announced it own wheeled quadruped, called the W1.

Back in the good old days, you needed skills to ride a Suzuki up the stairs, and people would look at you like a lunatic. On the Suzuki MOQBA quadruped horsiecycle, though, no skills are required, and people are more likely to look at you with pity.