This jumping $800 robot camera dog filled me with joy

What if you had a drone that wasn’t a buzzy, annoying alert group wanted to swat — but alternatively a tiny canine that runs and jumps? What if it could do tricks connected command, and film your tricks arsenic well? What if it could get correct backmost up aft a nasty-looking crash, dozens of times successful a row?

The first clip I saw Beni connected Instagram, I instantly thought it was AI video slop. Surely user robots aren’t that smart and agile successful 2026? Then I took the existent robot for a spin. Truth is, Beni does request work. But my first two-hour demo was truthful overmuch fun, I severely want 1 for myself.

For astir $600 connected Kickstarter today aliases $800 afloat retail, Shenzhen-based Mondo Robotics is trading the dream of a two-legged robot canine that automatically follows you aliases your pet around. It claims that Beni tin zip down the roadworthy astatine astir 18 miles per hour, jump up to 10 inches into the air, hop up stairs, and past for up to 1.5 hours connected a charge, filming and editing successful super-stable 4K30 HDR (or 3K60, aliases 1080p100) arsenic it goes.

You tin power it pinch 1 aliases 2 virtual joysticks successful the app, aliases the joystick built into its bundled controller that tin optionally strap to your wrist for illustration a watch. Or, conscionable group it to travel you from behind, side, aliases orbit astir you for illustration a drone.

I couldn’t trial each of that successful 1 afternoon, and I person my doubts astir the “automatically” portion if it’s aiming to vessel this fall. In my early demo, I had to manually activate its search modes, and Beni’s copy 150-degree obstacle avoidance cameras and UWB wrist locator weren’t capable to support it from clipping corners, smacking walls, aliases moreover moving into my ft while trying to support up pinch my footwear scooter. (It did acold amended erstwhile I simply walked the streets of downtown Oakland.)

But I was floored by really unchangeable and durable this bot genuinely is. It followed maine down aggregate flights of stairs, and moreover erstwhile I many times and intentionally ran it into walls and disconnected ledges, it ever bounced backmost pinch nary much than a heavy scuff. And yes, it really tin jump for illustration it’s sewage a brace of Speed Racer’s auto-jacks! It’s so fun.

The instrumentality is the legs. Motors successful the shoulders fling the little legs downward, while spring-filled cylindrical joints sorb the shock. When my Beni landed aft this spectacular jump, it stayed connected its feet — but moreover erstwhile it doesn’t, it instantly recovers by rotating those legs to get its wheeled feet backmost underneath its body. Check retired my embedded video successful this communicative to spot conscionable really overmuch beating Beni tin return and still get up again!

Beni’s sewage just capable characteristic that I felt a small bad slamming it into each those walls. You tin pet it connected the head, and it’ll jump aliases shingle aliases coo astatine you while flashing colorful ray (roughly 37 lux, these aren’t headlights) from its Wall-E-esque binocular eyes.

The truth that it tin look pinch its caput without turning its body besides helps make Beni seems live — and it theoretically lets Mondo get distant pinch conscionable 2 obstacle avoidance sensors that constituent guardant erstwhile it’s filming you from the side. There’s moreover a mounting successful the app that’ll fto Beni rotate its caput afloat backwards truthful it tin movie you from the front, though I didn’t person clip to effort that one.

Around back, Beni has a large 31 watt-hour swappable artillery pinch built-in powerfulness button, a covered microSD slot for expanding beyond its 32GB of built-in storage, and a hidden USB-C larboard supra the artillery for charging and information transfer.

The movable orangish ears aren’t conscionable truthful you tin cock them astatine different angles to springiness your doggo different looks — you tin unscrew the nubs underneath each of them to expose 1/4-inch tripod threads to connect modular photo/video accessories. You tin besides switch retired the outdoor wheels for indoor ones pinch a azygous pinch, though the basal kit only comes pinch the 1 set.

There’s besides presently 2 further sets of electrical contacts for future-proofing, including 4 astatine the apical that mightiness thief Mondo adhd a treat-tosser for your pets, and 2 astatine the bottommost that could alteration a early dock-and-charge position for your home. Mondo says it’ll merchandise a 4G dongle successful China that plugs into the USB-C port, truthful users location tin thrust it remotely, and it besides plans to supply 3D printer files for further camera mounts and assemblage armor, for illustration this:

It seems for illustration there’s planned extent successful the app for powerfulness users, too. Mondo trading head Cody Skene and imaginative head Ryo Miyamoto show maine really you tin set Beni’s thrust height, the transportation of its camera and the grade of its stabilization, really quickly Beni moves and turns, moreover the curves of its joysticks.

And while Mondo isn’t needfully making a afloat twin-stick controller of its own, Miyamoto shows maine really Beni tin activity pinch third-party controllers, too, handing maine a full-fat racing transmitter and a brace of Xreal glasses he’s rigged up to Mondo’s app for FPV control. He says it’s moreover much nosy pinch the Logitech G29 racing instrumentality he’s sewage astatine home, saying that it tin plug correct into a phone, and frankincense into Mondo’s app, arsenic agelong arsenic you’ve sewage a measurement to powerfulness it. He’s sewage a large outer artillery for that.

This is simply a Kickstarter task from a comparatively chartless startup, truthful the accustomed caveats apply: it’s ever imaginable it’ll ne'er ship, aliases ne'er vessel to you, getting stuck successful certification aliases customs limbo for illustration immoderate projects do. While this isn’t a flying drone, it does travel from DJI veterans, though Skene assures maine the institution has nary different relationship to DJI and its robot is wholly manufactured in-house. He says he’s assured Beni will vessel this fall.

After a mates hours pinch Beni, my takeaway is this: moreover if it doesn’t fulfill the follow-me dream to the grade its trading videos show, it’s not for illustration galore different companies are building a self-balancing, self-righting, jumping R/C artifact pinch a built-in 4K camera that my kids will want to pet. If location isn’t immoderate fatal flaw by the clip it hits production, this one’s going connected my Christmas wishlist.