Four-legged robots are no longer a luxury: Affordable small robot dog presented

February 2, 2023  16:33

It used to be that only a few government agencies and private companies could afford to buy a four-legged robot. Now, however, much more affordable robots have begun to appear on the market. One of them is the XGO 2, a small robot-dog that has a separate “arm” in addition to legs and “paws.”

The robot was developed by Luwu Intelligent Technology, a subsidiary of Harbin Polytechnic University (China). The robot uses the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 processor and is compatible with Blockly, Python and ROS. Like other small four-legged robots such as Bittle and Mini Pupper, XGO 2 can be controlled either through a special application or its actions can be pre-programmed using the languages mentioned above.

According to NewAtlas, built-in artificial intelligence modules can recognize visual images, sounds and gestures, allowing XGO 2 to hear, recognize and respond to users like a real dog.

The robot also has six IMUs (inertial measurement units) and 12 degrees of freedom of movement, allowing it to move freely by stepping, walking or brisk walking" in any direction and keeping its balance on uneven or moving surfaces.

The robot’s head has a camera, microphone, speaker, LCD screen and control buttons that can be used for basic programming and switching between modes of operation. The screen also displays an animated muzzle, which gives the robot a bit of personality.

The robot dog, as mentioned above, also has an interestingly arranged arm that has three degrees of movement and can open to a width of 2.5-5.5 cm and grab objects. With this arm, the robot can grasp, lift, lower or pull any light object. But it is not yet known how much weight the arm can hold.

Recently a fundraising campaign was launched on Kickstarter to complete the development of the robot and bring it to market. The developers hoped to raise $20,000, but have already received more than $107,000, although there are still 28 days left before the campaign ends.

The XGO 2 will reportedly come in two versions: The Lite version of the robot will cost $449 in pre-orders on Kickstarter, and the Mini version will cost $749. And when the robots go on sale at retail, they will be available for $898 and $1,398, respectively.


 
 
 
 
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