Boston Dynamics unveils SpotMini: An extraordinary dog-bot with senses

SpotMini developed by this SoftBank group company represents another advancement in robotic evolution

Boston Dynamics, the US-based robot maker backed by Japan’s Softbank, is known for building machines with terrifying appearances. Now, the company has put up a new teaser video of their upcoming model on YouTube. 

Dubbed as ‘SpotMini’, the new robot looks like a dog but with fine design work, aesthetics and responses. In the video, the robot is seen taking a stroll in a park. It comes near the camera, senses its presence, turns its neck, ignores it and then moves on. A rather small clip does not show complete capabilities of the robot but highlights the advancement that the company has made in developing robots.

Watch SpotMini in action here
 

In the past, the company unveiled a host of robots in different evolutionary stages of robotics. In what could be considered as terrifying adaptation of living beings, these robots do not look as close to their living counterparts but try and mimic the complicated movements made by human or animal bodies. They are just a precursor to what we may see in the future; highly evolved robots that are able to move or act like human beings or animals. 

Take a look at this version of SpotMini – a robotic lookalike of a giraffe
 

A WildCat that runs like a horse...

And Atlas, the next generation human-bot
 

PS: As Boston Dynamics' says, “No robots were harmed during the making of these videos”