CyberDog, Xiaomi’s not-so-cute companion robot

Xiaomi is present on all fronts: smartphones, connected watches, scooters … and now, a companion robot. His CyberDog is strangely reminiscent of those of Boston Dynamics. He is a long way from Aibo, Sony’s robot dog. No little “kawai” (cute in Japanese, a term popular with teens), but a very stylish cyber dog.

Read also :Boston Dynamics’ robot dog to go to market before year end

If appearance is not its main asset, Xiaomi relies on the other qualities of CyberDog to promote its adoption. Above all, it was designed to appeal to robotics fans and other developers who will be able to add new features to it. Equipped with sensors, CyberDog can interact with its environment or interact with its owner. Thanks to facial recognition he follows his “master” and obeys him. As long as you want to hoe at home or in the street with a robot dog that looks more like the killers of Terminator than a friendly pet.

A market to build

However, CyberDog’s presentation says a lot about Xiaomi’s ambitions. The group, already world number two in the smartphone market, intends to extend its industrial footprint to all connected objects of daily life, including companion robots. Until now, this product segment has never taken off, failing to see financially affordable and really useful devices arrive on the market. The situation could quickly change.

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