The Xiaomi CyberDog is an awesome vision of our creepy smart home future
Xiaomi first introduced its Boston Dynamics Spot-like prototype quadruped robot in August 2021. While it hasn’t exactly conquered the world since then, it did have a lot of appearances at trade shows and Xiaomi events alike. In fact, I got to greet Xiaomi’s CyberDog at bothMWC 2022and theXiaomi 12 Prolaunch event alike, and it has definitely made an impression on me.
What even is the Xiaomi CyberDog?
Before we dive into the matter, we need a quick rundown of what the CyberDog even is. It’s a dog-like robot with tons of expensive electronics integrated into it. It’s capable of navigating its environment autonomously, and it draws its energy from a battery that’s good for about half an hour of continuous usage right now, which doesn’t seem like much, but it’s okay for a prototype.
The CyberDog is powered by an AI-optimized “supercomputer” in the form of the Nvidia Jetson Xavier NX platform, consisting of a multitude of cores, processors, and deep learning engines. This platform is processing the data from 11 sensors, including cameras, GPS modules, and touch and ultrasonic sensors. The cameras are straight from Xiaomi’s imaging technology division, consisting of an array of depth sensors, fisheye lenses, and AI-optimized cameras that help the CyberDog analyze its surroundings and create navigation maps in real-time, all while avoiding obstacles.
Xiaomi even promises that you’re able to — theoretically — interact with the CyberDog using your voice, with an “Ok Google”-like activation word taking care that it isn’t listening to you all the time. The robot can be further customized by developers thanks to three USB Type-C and an HDMI port, allowing for additions like screens, lights, cameras, LiDAR, and more.
The outlook is more impressive than what the CyberDog does right now
Now, all of this sounds incredibly promising, but the CyberDog is still in an early stage of development. Xiaomi made as much clear to me. During the hands-on session, the robot was almost exclusively controlled by an operator, stripping it almost completely of any of its autonomy (safe for making sure it isn’t toppling over). It was controlled via two virtual joysticks in an Android app that also offers buttons for some pre-programmed movement patterns, like roll-over, stand up, sit down, lay down, give paw, and a few more.
Even though these are all pre-programmed movements, the robot still has to maintain balance on its own on terrain that it isn’t familiar with, so there are tons of operations going on in the background. For example, when pushed gently, the robot would work against the unexpected force applied to it and strive to keep its upright position, and once you let go, it fully rebalances itself, without any input needed. On a technological level, these are important first steps to figure out before going for a fully autonomous solution, so it was definitely incredible to see just how reliable the robot is already proving. And some of these pre-programmed movements are fun and feel more real than they really are, like when that little robot dog gives paw and lets you pet it.
I even got to experience one of the CyberDog’s more advanced features. Using its cameras and an intelligent algorithm, it can be set in a follow mode, where it follows a specific person around from a distance, and it worked incredibly well for the minute or so that we tried — at least I didn’t get run over or anything while it slowly followed me, correctly identifying me in a small group of people.
However, as impressive as this is on a technological level, there is still a lot of work to be done. It’s good that the CyberDog only loosely resembles a real dog, as anything else closer to a real animal would give you the real creeps, leading you right into theuncanny valley, The CyberDog’s movements feel remotely dog-like, but so incredibly mechanic and robotic at the same time that it can creep you out if Xiaomi ever went for a more truly dog-like appearance. This is definitely something Xiaomi still has to work on (and let’s be honest,Boston Dynamics’ Spotisn’t lookingthatmuch more natural than the CyberDog).
Xiaomi also has yet to figure out what it actually wants to do with CyberDog, if it even ever becomes a product that makes it to the consumer market. In the long term, Xiaomi could imagine seeing the robot in consumers’ houses and apartments, roaming the place to help check on it or to be a companion for elderly, automatically calling a doctor or a loved one if they’re unresponsive — just one of many ideas. The company relies heavily on feedback from developers and universities that it’s working together on creating use cases for the CyberDog.
The CyberDog is one of these devices that companies create just to see if it ever becomes a viable product for the mass market, and to test the waters in case any competitor comes up with something similar. Just look at all these companies initially going into the increasingly consolidated AR and VR market, and how many ideas are still thrown around in that industry.
It’s clear that Boston Dynamics’ Spot must have served as an inspiration for Xiaomi here, with the company thinking, “but what if we could make it cheaper and actually put it in the hands of regular folks?” While it’s up for debate if a robot like it will ever roam our homes alongside our actual living and breathing pets, it’s astonishing just how quickly technology like this can go from more expensive than a car to a potential luxury smart home item.
Who knows, maybe in the future we’ll have robot dogs running Android with us all day instead of these boring old smartphones. I, for one, am both terrified and intrigued by the idea at the same time.
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