Chinese Startup Unitree Begins Selling a Headless Robot Dog for $2,700 (ieee.org) 69
Long-time Slashdot reader cusco shares an interesting report from IEEE Spectrum:
In 2017, we first wrote about the Chinese startup Unitree Robotics, which had the goal of "making legged robots as popular and affordable as smartphones and drones." Relative to the cost of other quadrupedal robots (like Boston Dynamics' $74,000 Spot), Unitree's quadrupeds are very affordable, with their A1 costing under $10,000 when it became available in 2020. This hasn't quite reached the point of consumer electronics that Unitree is aiming for, but they've just gotten a lot closer: now available is the Unitree Go1, a totally decent looking small size quadruped that can be yours for an astonishingly low $2700.
Speedy, good looking gait, robust, and a nifty combination of autonomous human-following and obstacle avoidance... There are three versions of the Go1: the $2700 base model Go1 Air, the $3500 Go1, and the $8500 Go1 Edu... The top of the line Edu model offers higher end computing, 2kg more payload (up to 5kg), as well as foot-force sensors, lidar, and a hardware extension interface and API access... Battery life is a big question — the video seems to suggest that the Go1 is capable of a three-kilometer, 20-minute jog, and then some grocery shopping and a picnic, all while doing obstacle avoidance and person following and with an occasional payload.
Unitree later provided the reporter more detailed specs:
Speedy, good looking gait, robust, and a nifty combination of autonomous human-following and obstacle avoidance... There are three versions of the Go1: the $2700 base model Go1 Air, the $3500 Go1, and the $8500 Go1 Edu... The top of the line Edu model offers higher end computing, 2kg more payload (up to 5kg), as well as foot-force sensors, lidar, and a hardware extension interface and API access... Battery life is a big question — the video seems to suggest that the Go1 is capable of a three-kilometer, 20-minute jog, and then some grocery shopping and a picnic, all while doing obstacle avoidance and person following and with an occasional payload.
Unitree later provided the reporter more detailed specs:
- The battery life of the robot while jogging is about 1 hour
- It weighs 12kg
- The Super Sensory System includes five wide-angle stereo depth cameras, hypersonic distance sensors, and an integrated processing system
- It's running at 16 core CPU and a 1.5 tflop GPU
No death lasrs? (Score:2)
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it's only $8k for the programmable model with sensors and a 5kg carry capacity. just stuff it with 5kg of hexogen (~$5k, subject to availability lol) and a face-recognition trigger (cheap af).
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Replacing man's best friend (Score:2)
No potty training, no chewing up your stuff, and no picking up puppy waste in the yard. I won't miss the pit bulls.
How long until the public can upgrade to the Security Dog package? That should be popular with old folks and criminals alike.
Re: Replacing man's best friend (Score:2)
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Early models likely won't last seven years or handle dirt and rain well; and, since they'll have to be programmed to bite/chase the vicar & mailman, you'll lose plausible deniability.
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Will it last seven years, handle dirt and rain and bite/chase the vicar and mailman?
I don't really want mine to bite/chase the mailman.
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Will it last seven years, handle dirt and rain and bite/chase the vicar and mailman?
I don't really want mine to bite/chase the mailman.
Are you even sure you want a dog then?
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How long until the public can upgrade to the Security Dog package? That should be popular with old folks and criminals alike.
Or police forces. Let's not imagine the future is quite that benign. Imagine a criminal hacking into the iK9 doggie force and turning them against their owners.
Doesn't take even animal instinct to see just how bad that idea will likely go, as Security sits at the childs table while the Marketeers chatter endlessly about profits.
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With write protection on, and "did you flick it off and on" patent pending PC technology would stymie any hacker.
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Technology and its accompanying double edged sword... mankind's wonderful advancement to robotic care for the elderly, so that we might live autonomously until we're on the other side of the dirt, versus the inevitable corruption of it for nefarious purpose.
Perhaps this, our very nature, is the final insurmountable hurdle that the great filter presents.
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The Chinese sell their knock-offs for half the price of the original, but $2700 still sounds way too rich for anything from China, which is usually just junk.
OTOH the Chinese are also starting to sell their Polestar electric vehicles (made by Geely) abroad. These are $60.000 a pop and believe it or not, even for that price the Chinese can't make a decent car.
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> $2700 still sounds way too rich for anything from China, which is usually just junk.
Some applications don't require reuse. We'll see when an SDK is out.
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Fifty more cents for you, comrade. Just don't wikipedia tank man or it's off to the labor camps with ya
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You've signaled your need for another fifty cents
What a terrible job
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I believe the only way we can stop China is to treat them like we did the Soviet Union: complete isolation and decoupling. Ban every Chinese national from studying or working in the west. Cut their internet lines and forbid any import from or export to China.
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I believe the only way we can stop China is to treat them like we did the Soviet Union: complete isolation and decoupling. Ban every Chinese national from studying or working in the west. Cut their internet lines and forbid any import from or export to China.
Unfortunately quite a lot of the worlds products are produced in China, it will take decades of buildup before we can cut the cord with China.
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They're basically a "systemic rival" to the West and need to be put down.
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It may shock you to learn this, but the Untied States is not the only country on the planet that China trades with. Your solution has an easily predictable result:
1) US bans all trade with China
2) China stops propping up the US dollar
3) US economy implodes
4) Chinese economy takes a strong hit for ~5 years while they redirect their marketing
5) Chaos reigns in the US with armed gangs ruling cities
6) China continues being China, just like the last 5,000 years
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China's and the world economy would implode simultaneously
Duh. Most of the world has been through economic collapse to one extent or another within living memory, they have some clue what to do and will recover. The last time that happened in the US was the Great Depression, and that generation is almost gone. Americans are not going to react well to not being able to buy food, much less the latest gee-gaw.
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I'm focusing on the US because the original poster seemed to think that we could somehow cut off all contact with the Chinese economy to "stop" them, and I'm pointing out that any action that stupid would be much worse for us than for them.
China doesn't have a command economy any more, but could slip back into that mode fairly quickly and without much opposition in the case of an economic emergency. The Chinese won't let their people starve because they know what hungry people do. In the US on the other h
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You have to admit, it really does look like a Boston Dynamics product. It's just painted black.
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Of course it does, it's an electromechanical quadruped mimicking biological quadrupeds, if it looked dramatically different that would indicate they did something really wrong.
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There are any number of ways an electromechanical quadruped mimicking biological quadrupeds could turn out. Actual dog legs can be quite varied:
https://www.dogbreedinfo.com/c... [dogbreedinfo.com]
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Ah but one gets "cheap" by doing so as well as not supporting those "all powerful tech" companies that threaten to take over the world. ;-)
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I doubt it's a straight ripoff. Most tellingly, did you see it doing *any* of the complex stuff "Spot" is routinely shown doing? I didn't see it handle stairs, rough terrain, or *anything* other than smoothly paved concrete or nicely groomed grass. Even the bit where it crossed the street, there wasn't actually a raised curb. And not once did it stand up on its own after being knocked over. If that's all it can handle, it seems to me the legs are purely an inefficient cosmetic affectation - it's a toy
Re: Cheap knockoff (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, because it looks the same, it is the same?
You think Chinese are stupid and can't make a more functionally equivalent version, without copying or reverse engineering? I'd hazard a guess that Chinese are well represented at Boston Dynamic much like any place where innovation happens.
There are some complete idiots here on /.
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You don't understand, it's just fine for US or European companies to build on the technology developed worldwide over the centuries, but if the Chinese want to build an airplane they need to reinvent the airfoil all on their own or else they'll just be simple copycats! I'm sure they think that if Unitree didn't rediscover electricity, batteries, and motors independently then they're just copying someone else's work.
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I'd bet they just bought a spot and reversed engineered/stole whatever they could.
That would be a feat worthy of talking about considering there's very little engineering or R&D that goes into Spot's construction, and a shitton of it in control algorithms and tuning.
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This is pretty much the ignorant bigotry that I expected to see when I posted this article, but I thought, "What the heck, some people will think it's cool" and posted it anyway. It never fails to amaze me that some people are such racist pricks that they think 1/4 of the world's population can't have a single person capable of an original thought, only the European-descended have such a talent. You really should take your 1985 mindset and toss it in the shredder, look around at the world as it is today a
The Hacker and the Ants (Score:2)
Anyone read this? Sounds familiar...
2700 dollar beer can holder. (Score:1)
I love it!
It works as advertised, I'd love to have one of these. I always loved "spot" too, but at 75K Usd - he's as expensive as someone's house or luxury car, which means spot isn't for everyone, that makes spot a rich kids toy.
This one can be afforded by anyone, and seem to work just as well as spot, but if they're successful with this, the Gov. will quickly forbid it or claim that it can be used to spy with or is an security issue for "insert-country-here" and prohibit it's sales and exports to co-opera
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Illegal? No. Stumble hazard, whizzing oil all over the floor? Yes.
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Ha yes, I saw Michael Reeve's Beer experiment too :)
He's a lot funnier than all of the Psyop's hard at work in here ;)
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Lonely person, sad. Need dead animate object in life, to feel better, even sadder.
Why, just, why?!?
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At $2,700.00 yes you're getting fucked.
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I can see why you asked that as AC.
sure (Score:1)
No thanks. (Score:2)
People who develop "relationships" with machinery are tetched inna head.
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Guys and their cars. Men naming their ships with female names.
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I name my plants, does that count?
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There's something to be said for sending in robots dogs to protect the real dogs... from getting eaten.
No approval in Germany. (Score:2)
Can not carry a cask of beer!
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Is not dog - but Grog.
I don't get it. (Score:2)
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For $2700? Good luck hitting that price point for the next two or three decades.
Funny.. (Score:2)
Death Lasers? (Score:2)
No grenade holders, claymore bolt-ons or death lasers?
Or will that be the "educational version" :)
Looks cool, but... (Score:2)
Looks cool, but a) I wouldn't spend that much money on a toy with no clear purpose, and b) never buy Version 1.0 of anything.
It'd be nice if it could roam your property looking for intruders and sound an alarm for any anomalous events like unknown faces, prowling, glass-breaking sounds, etc (although I suspect you could probably program it to do something like that).
This might be good for a factory, though, where you would have several of them roaming around doing security checks, spotting water leaks, brea
Dogs have a dog's heads. No head == no dog (Score:2)
How many parts can be missing and it still be called a dog?
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It's a dog as long as the woofer is present.
Relax ... (Score:2)
Be careful it doesn't stand for president - it might beat Trump!