Robot Dog Walks Up Stairs (Video)

The engineers over at Boston Dynamics have been hard at work lately on robots that can emulate natural movement and have environmental awareness. The result: a robot dog that can not only respond to walls and obstacles, but can now even climb a staircase with ease!

For the record, scientists have claimed to have made robots that can climb stairs for years, but have had very limited success. I mean, just look at Honda’s Asimo back in 2010…

But, according to this video, the project from Boston Dynamics, titled the SpotMini, is a giant leap in the evolution of intelligent robots.

Although right now the robot dog is only intended for use in commercial buildings and office spaces, they hope to have a model for private homes on the market by 2019.

The thing is, if you look past the initial cool factor of having a robot dog with realistic movements, I don’t really get the appeal of having a 55-pound metal machine wandering around your house all the time. I feel like this is one of those things people would want just because it’s possible and they can afford it.

But what do you guys think? You can check out a full article from Mashable.com here. Is this gonna be the new must-have next year?

AC