Chinese Startup Unitree Begins Selling a Headless Robot Dog for $2,700 – BlackTopComedy

Lengthy-time Slashdot reader cusco shares an attention-grabbing report from IEEE Spectrum:In 2017, we first wrote in regards to the Chinese language startup Unitree Robotics, which had the aim of “making legged robots as fashionable and reasonably priced as smartphones and drones.” Relative to the price of different quadrupedal robots (like Boston Dynamics’ $74,000 Spot), Unitree’s quadrupeds are very reasonably priced, with their A1 costing below $10,000 when it turned accessible in 2020. This hasn’t fairly reached the purpose of shopper electronics that Unitree is aiming for, however they’ve simply gotten loads nearer: now accessible is the Unitree Go1, a completely first rate trying small dimension quadruped that may be yours for an astonishingly low $2700. Speedy, good trying gait, sturdy, and a nifty mixture of autonomous human-following and impediment avoidance… There are three variations of the Go1: the $2700 base mannequin Go1 Air, the $3500 Go1, and the $8500 Go1 Edu… The highest of the road Edu mannequin affords larger finish computing, 2kg extra payload (as much as 5kg), in addition to foot-force sensors, lidar, and a {hardware} extension interface and API entry… Battery life is an enormous questionthe video appears to recommend that the Go1 is able to a three-kilometer, 20-minute jog, after which some grocery buying and a picnic, all whereas doing impediment avoidance and particular person following and with an occasional payload. Unitree later supplied the reporter extra detailed specs:The battery lifetime of the robotic whereas jogging is about 1 hourIt weighs 12kgThe Tremendous Sensory System consists of 5 wide-angle stereo depth cameras, hypersonic distance sensors, and an built-in processing systemIt’s working at 16 core CPU and a 1.5 tflop GPURead extra of this story at Slashdot.