Kawasaki unveiled a robotic ibex (a species of wild goat) at its display at the iREX robot trade show in Japan last week. And as you can see in a recent video posted to YouTube, it’s big enough for an adult human to ride on.
The concept goat was developed by Kawasaki‘s team of engineers who have been working on a “Robust Humanoid Platform” called Kaleido since 2015. Somewhere along the way, though, they reasoned that if two legs were good, wouldn’t four legs be better?
“Halfway between humanoid robots and wheeled robots, [we] wondered if there was an opportunity,” Masayuki Soube, who is in charge of developing the RHP, said in an interview published by Kawasaki. “That’s why we started developing Bex, a quadruped walking robot. We believe that the walking technology cultivated in the development of humanoid robots can definitely be applied to quadruped walking robots.”
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Beyond taking people in white hard hats for leisurely strolls, Bex, as the robot is called, can carry all kinds of cargo up to 100 kg (220 lbs) and its body can be shaped to better suit what’s being hauled. It also comes with cameras that can help with plant inspections on industrial farms and, since it walks, it’s already suited to a number of natural environments.
Naturally, Kawasaki isn’t the first robotics company to come to these conclusions, as Boston Dynamics, which has been acquired by Hyundai, developed the BigDog. That robot dog has some impressive tricks but Bex does also have wheels in case they should become more convenient.
Working on four-legged robots doesn’t mean, though, that Kawasaki has given up on bipeds. At the same show, the company showed off its latest humanoid robot pushing a wheelchair, talking with the elderly, and dancing on stage.