As humans inch toward a future imagined only by the likes of Isaac Asimov or Philip K Dick, it seems there will come a time where each household will own a robotic helper pet of its own – especially if Boston Dynamics continues on its current course.
Enter SpotMini, the smaller version of the company’s earlier Spot robot, is a four-legged bionic “dog” with an attachable arm (that looks more like a giraffe’s neck), complete with clamp. SpotMini can scuttle about the house assuming there are no slippery banana peels on the floor it can crawl under tables, and, most importantly, it can do the dishes.
According to Boston Dynamics, SpotMini weighs 55 pounds (25 kg) “dripping wet” or 65 pounds (29.5 kg) with the arm attached.
“SpotMini is one of the quietest robots we have ever built,” the company said in its video featuring the animal-like robot.
The robotics firm, owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, had previously unleashed unsettlingly skeletal animal-human hybrid machines that are constantly shown being kicked over by their very creators.
COURTESY: INDEPENDENT