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Alphabet shows off house-cleaning robot dog

Michelle Avenant
By Michelle Avenant, portals journalist.
Johannesburg, 27 Jun 2016

Alphabet-owned engineering and robotics design company Boston Dynamics is showing off SpotMini: a robot "dog" capable of doing basic household chores.

While presented as a cyber version of the canine household pet, The Verge called SpotMini a "giraffe", presumably for its long neck, tiny head and spindly limbs. Its mouth is beak-like and its head is egg-shaped and earless, more like that of some dinosaurs.

The robot walks and runs on four legs, which it can bend to crouch and crawl underneath obstacles such as tables. Its neck is enough to be used to push the robot back onto its feet if it falls over onto its side.

Using its mouth to pick things up and put them down and its neck to move them around, SpotMini can perform basic household chores such as loading a dishwasher or collecting and disposing of recycling. It can pick up objects gently enough to place glasses in a dishwasher without breaking them, and rotate its head to carry a glass or can upright in order to bring its user a drink.

In January, the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition posted a video of Boston Dynamics' more well-known Atlas robot performing household chores such as vacuuming - however clumsily, and not without extensive input from its programmers.

While SpotMini has drawn laughs for its humorous appearance, it represents a step forward for Boston Dynamics where house-cleaning robots are concerned.

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