This robotic goat by Kawasaki can take you for a ride
Boston Dynamics’ robotic dog, Spot, regularly grabs headlines sometimes for dancing like Mick Jagger and other times for helping out in a factory. But now, automaker Kawasaki has launched a quadruped walking goat that will take you for a spin – quite literally!
Unveiled at the International Robot Exhibition that took place in Tokyo last week, Kawasaki’s robotic goat called Bex has been named and modelled after a goat species called Ibex that is native to Africa and Eurasia. In addition to walking around (like a goat), Bex can also carry a human being on its back. The experience is almost as good as riding a horse, sans the bumps and jumps.
The demo video of the Kawasaki Bex shows the robotic goat has a long neck and horns that light up as it moves. It has sidebars and long legs that sprout wheels when lowered. The robotic goat can carry up to 100 Kgs of weight and you can take the goat for a ride in both the mentioned positions.
Kawasaki started developing Robust Humanoid Platform (RHP) back in 2015. “So, halfway between humanoid robots and wheeled robots, [we] wondered if there was an opportunity. That’s why we started developing Bex, a quadruped walking robot. We believe that the walking technology cultivated in the development of humanoid robots can definitely be applied to quadruped walking robots,” head of RHP program, Masayuki Soube, said in an interview to IEEE Spectrum.
What’s interesting about Bex is that its upper body is not fixed and it can be modified as per the application that the robotic goat is being used for. Now, one would think that there aren’t many applications of a robotic goat. But Kawasaki has quite a few applications in mind. The company plans to deploy it at construction sites and manufacturing plants. Its body will obviously be modified as per the application it is being used for. In the meantime, you can hop on its back and go for a ride!
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