Another robotic dog is about to hit the market. This puppy, however, is different from the rest: it’s actually affordable.
The new low-cost robotic dog comes with some impressive features, including face, object and color tracking, vision-based navigation and mapping, and more. All cool if you can put aside the fact that its body looks more like an oversized bug than a dog, and that it has the head of Thomas the tank engine (or, you know, a wall socket). You can? Well then, read on.
Kyzen Quadruped Robot Specifications:
- Face recognition and tracking
- Object and color tracking
- Vision-based navigation and mapping
- Follow me feature
- Battery: 4,200 mAh
- Internal storage: 256 GB
- Maximum load capacity: 2.2lbs
- Maximum speed: 5.5mph
- Weight: 5.5lbs
- Dimensions: 17 x 15 x 10 inches
The Technology
Kyzen the robot dog has four durable carbon fiber legs that allow it to bend down, tilt sideways, or lower its body completely even when walking or tracking someone.
Thanks to the three cameras mounted on the head, this doggo is capable of recognizing faces, objects, and even colors. There is one wide-angle camera on the top of its head so it can keep you in its sight non-stop while using the other two cameras and the laser range finder to navigate the surroundings.
Kyzen is completely autonomous, so no remote control whatsoever. It uses vision-based navigation and mapping and the forward-facing range finder to develop an accurate understanding of the space and objects around it. Best of all, it requires no Wi-Fi or cloud for processing.
What Does It Do?
So, what is this puppy actually capable of? Quite a few things, actually: it can go to a specific room, bring something to a certain room or person, recognize new obstacles and find alternate routes around them, and avoid areas with larger drops or terrain that isn’t able to navigate properly.
While following you, Kyzen stays behind and to the right of you so that it can see you and any potential obstacles at the same time. Activating the Follow Me feature (powered by YoLo Neural Network technology) will prevent this good boy from walking away with a stranger.
Basically, if you want to show off a household robot that’s capable of following you, bringing you things, and carrying things for you, this is the perfect gadget for that. Anything more than that – get a real dog.
The Buy
Interested in the new robopup and don’t mind testing hardware yourself? You can pledge only $244 and receive a pre-release Kyzen Kit, charging station, and pre-flashed SD card in August this year.
Learn more at Kickstarter.com.
