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Unitree A1 Robot ala Black Mirror and Snow Crash

The Unitree A1 Robot is quite an impressive piece of kit - fast, smart and swarming.

High running speed: Maximum continuous outdoor running speed at 3.3m/s (11.88km/h). The fastest and most stable small and medium sized quadruped robot on the market.

High strength and light body structure. Easy to maintain. 24V external power input. 5V, 12V, 19V power supply. Convenient for additional external equipments. Equipped with high-performance dual master control (sensing master control and motion master control). External interface: 4USB, 2HDMI, 2*Ethernet. Master control can be upgraded to TX2. Standard equipments include RealSense depth cameras. Capable of map building and obstacle avoidance.

Realtime tracking of objects within visual range. Support online machine learning of the target features. Displaying the confidence of tracking using color box (green → red, 100% → 0%)

Avoid obstacle within 0.8m of the robot's visual range. Capable of detecting the obstacle shapes to adjust the body position. Realtime display of the adjustment of robot body, maximum distance and area within the visual angle, and the range of walking track.

Via Unitree

Fans of Black Mirror: Metalhead may think that the Unitree A1 Robot Dog is uncomfortably close to this little guy:

Fans of Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash may recall the Rat Thing:

The body is Rottweiler-sized, segmented into overlapping hard plates like those of a rhinoceros. The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's.

The body converges to a sharp nose. In the front it bends down sharply, and there is a black canopy, raked sharply like the windshield of a fighter plane. If the Rat Thing has eyes, this is where it looks out.
(Read more about Stephenson's Rat Thing)

William Gibson fans will think me remiss if I forget the slam hound from Count Zero (1986).

Thanks to @ BrianRoemmele for pointing this out.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 1/9/2021)

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