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Meet Spot, the robot dog that can run, hop and open doors | Marc Raibert

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At Amazon Robotics, we are continually reimagining what now looks like. We see the big picture, imagine a better one, and make the connections that turn complex problems into elegantly simple solutions. Our drive toward a smarter, faster, more consistent customer experience fuels Amazon - and the industry - forward, now.

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Though the earthquake that struck Japan's eastern coast earlier today has left the country with massive destruction and hundreds of deaths, modern technology (and Japan's impressive level of readiness) are helping the country track survivors and dampen the damage as much as possible. In the future, our ability to cope with natural disasters will only increase, due in large part to the particular talent earthquake-vulnerable areas--especially Japan (and to a lesser extent, California)--have for robotics.

Predicting earthquakes is still a remarkably fruitless effort--seismologists are not reliably able to predict even a particular month in which an earthquake will occur, let alone a day. So the work done to mitigate the damage done by earthquakes is often in post-quake search-and-rescue tactics. Interestingly, two of the most earthquake-prone places in the world are also two of the world's hotbeds of robotics engineering. Japan is situated along the so-called Pacific Rim of Fire, at the point where the Pacific and Eurasian tectonic plates collide. The country is continually at risk of massive earthquakes, and as a technological world power, is uniquely capable of creating technological salves for 'quakes.
Click to launch the photo gallery
Hopefully, advances like the ones shown here will be able to somewhat lessen the destruction of earthquakes in the future.

Note: While most of these creations come from Japan, we stumbled across a few from elsewhere that were so cool we couldn't keep them to ourselves. Although, interestingly, those were mostly from another high-tech and high-risk earthquake area--California.

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Meet Japan's Earthquake Search-and-Rescue Robots

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Though the earthquake that struck Japan's eastern coast earlier today has left the country with massive destruction and hundreds of deaths, modern technology (and Japan's impressive level of readiness) are helping the country track survivors and dampen the damage as much as possible.

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The U.S. Air Force is firming up its plans for expendable robot wingmen that can accompany human fighter pilots into combat.

The flying branch has settled on a name for the drone-wingman program. Skyborg. And it might be close to making up its mind on an airframe, too.

The Air Force Research Laboratory is handling the project. It wants a combat-capable prototype to be ready as early as 2023, according to a March 2019 announcement from the Ohio-based lab.

"This is our first step in determining what the current state of the art is from a technology perspective and from a systems-engineering perspective," Ben Tran, the Skyborg program manager, said in a statement.

Drone wingmen have been in development for years. "The idea of a robot wingman is that it can keep pace with manned planes, but be tasked out for parts of the mission that you wouldn't send a human teammate to do," Peter W. Singer, author of , told The Daily Beast.

In February 2019, Boeing's Australian subsidiary the so-called "Airpower Teaming System." The most striking part of the new system is a 38-foot-long, jet-powered drone that Boeing said could carry weapons and sensors and fly as far as 2,000 miles in formation with manned planes.

Australia could acquire the new drone to fly alongside its F/A-18 and F-35 fighters and E-7 radar planes.

China and Japan are also working on wingman drones. A mock-up or prototype of China's 30-feet-long Dark Sword drone first appeared in public in an undated photo that circulated on-line in mid-2018.

Japan revealed its own "Combat Support Unmanned Aircraft" wingman drone concept in a technology roadmap that Aviation Week first published in late 2016.

Meanwhile, California drone-maker Kratos has teamed up with AFRL to develop a wingman drone for U.S. force. The roughly 28-feet-long, jet-powered XQ-58 demonstrator flew for the first time over Yuma, Arizona on March 5, 2019, AFRL announced.

It's probably no coincidence that AFRL announced Skyborg shortly after the XQ-58's first flight. The Kratos drone could form the basis of the Skyborg program. The drone in the computer-generated imagery accompanying AFRL's Skyborg announcement bears a striking resemblance to the XQ-58.

To keep up with a manned fighter, a drone wingman would need to be fast and maneuverable. And to keep down the human pilot's workload, the drone would also need to be highly autonomous.

The XQ-58 fits the bill. The drone's capability "ranges from the low side of semi-autonomous (operator directed, autopilot stabilized) to the side of semi-autonomous (waypoint nav)," a Kratos spokesperson told The National Interest. "The system includes standard interfaces to enable full autonomy capabilities."

Just how autonomous the designs are could help to determine how successful they are on the marketplace -- and how effective they might be in combat. The more autonomous a particular wingman drone is, the more likely it is smoothly to integrate with busy human pilots.

Fighter pilots already are "task-saturated," to borrow a military term. Despite advancements in avionics that can simplify a fighter cockpit, a pilot still keeps busy flying his plane, monitoring his sensors and the air space around him and communicating with his wingmen and troops and battle-managers on the ground.

If a pilot also has to directly control potentially several drone wingmen -- feeding them navigation waypoints, regulating their sensors and commanding them to fire weapons -- he might get overwhelmed and, say, fail to notice an incoming enemy fighter.

Brian Laslie, a military historian and author of the , said he spoke to some pilots about the wingman-drone concept and got a mixed response.

"I asked around and the general consensus seems to be the idea has merit," Laslie told The Daily Beast, "but I think there is some hesitancy in certain communities from full acceptance. The phrase, 'I am already task-saturated' came up more than once."

But if a wingman drone is highly-autonomous, it could relieve a pilot of the burden of micromanaging the unmanned fighter.

A Valkyrie could follow commands from a nearby fighter pilot, the crew of a surveillance plane or even a controller on the ground. "Command-and-control options include both ground-based and airborne," Kratos .

AFRL wants Skyborg to feature a "dialable" artificial intelligence. A pilot would decide just how autonomous their wingman drones should be on a given mission.

"Skyborg is a vessel for A.I. technologies that could range from rather simple algorithms to fly the aircraft and control them in airspace to the introduction of more complicated levels of A.I. to accomplish certain tasks or sub-tasks of the mission," stated Matt Duquette, an AFRL engineer.

AFRL has been clear that, for now, Skyborg could fit any number of different airframes. "Skyborg is not scheduled for any particular type of aircraft platform at this time," the laboratory stated.

But it's looking more and more like Skyborg and the XQ-58 are aligning, and by 2023 could produce a flexible wingman drone that can think on its own, to whatever degree its human flight-leader wants.

David Axe serves as Defense Editor of the National Interest. He is the author of the graphic novels and Machete Squad.

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Skyborg: The Air Force's Robot Wingman That Could Fly Into Battle with an F-35

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The U.S. Air Force is firming up its plans for expendable robot wingmen that can accompany human fighter pilots into combat. The flying branch has settled on a name for the drone-wingman program. Skyborg. And it might be close to making up its mind on an airframe, too.

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SONY has brought back its famous AIBO robot dog more than a decade after it was sent to the great kennel in the sky.

AIBO is a simulated pet that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to learn and interact with its owner and surroundings.

The upgraded doggie has been equipped with new sensing and movement technologies as well as advanced AI backed by cloud computing.

It will go on sale in Japan in January for £198,000 yen (£1,309). It isn't yet known whether the futuristic pooch will relaunch in the UK.

The hi-tech hound will also require a yearly subscription of around 2,980 yen (£26) a month that will give wifi and wireless connectivity as well as access to app updates - so your dog will be able learn new tricks.

Aibo uses artificial intelligence to recognise its owner and run over to them - and learn what makes its owner happy.

A camera in its nose will also take snaps (although that sounds a bit creepy to us).

Sony first unleashed AIBO in 1999, selling about 150,000 dogs in Japan before ceasing production seven years later.

"It was a difficult decision to stop the project in 2006, but we continued development in AI and robotics," chief executive officer Kazuo Hirai said at a news briefing.

"I asked our engineers a year and a half ago to develop (new) AIBO because I strongly believe robots capable of building loving relationships with people help realise Sony's mission (to inspire)."

The reborn AIBO features new technology which allows it move more smoothly and naturally.

With sensing and AI technologies, AIBO can run toward its owner and detect smiles and words of praise, and can remember what actions please the owner.

Happily, it won't bite humans, hump their friends' legs or leave great steaming piles of poo on their carpets.

Its eyes are made of organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, making it capable of giving people simulated puppy eyes.

Sony said it aims to sell at least as many new AIBO as the original, although it's not clear whether it will be available in other countries.

Robots are likely to become more common in our homes.

However, experts recently said hacked machines could attack humans, burgle people's homes and KILL their pets.

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Sony brings back the robot dog AIBO after putting it down more than a decade ago

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SONY has brought back its famous AIBO robot dog more than a decade after it was sent to the great kennel in the sky. AIBO is a simulated pet that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to learn and interact with its owner and surroundings.

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Google unveiled a brand new self-driving car prototype on Tuesday; the first company to build a car with no a steering wheel, accelerator or brake pedal.

The car's arrival marks the next stage in Google's self-driving car project, which was born from the Darpa Grand Challenges for robotic vehicles in the early 2000s. Google kickstarted its own self-driving car project in 2008, and it has been rumbling on ever since, first with modified Toyota Prius and then with customised Lexus SUVs, which took the car's existing sensors, such as the cruise-control cameras, and added a spinning laser scanner on the top.

What is it?

It is the first truly driverless electric car prototype built by Google to test the next stage of its five-year-old self-driving car project. It looks like a cross between a Smart car and a Nissan Micra, with two seats and room enough for a small amount of luggage.

It is the first real physical incarnation of Google's vision of what a self-driving car of the near future could be.

Where is it?

It operates in and around California, primarily around the Mountain View area where Google has its headquarters.

What does it do?

It ferries two people from one place to another without any user interaction. The car is summoned by a smartphone for pick up at the user's location with the destination set. There is no steering wheel or manual control, simply a start button and a big red emergency stop button. In front of the passengers there is a small screen showing the weather, the current speed and a small countdown animation to launch.

Once the journey is done, the small screen displays a message to remind you to take your personal belongings - reinforcing that this is not aiming to be a substitute for your personal car at the moment, but more as a replacement for the taxi without the human driver.

What's it like?

Very few people outside of Google have been allowed to ride in the new car. Most of the people depicted in Google's promotional videos for the new car described the experience as "smooth" and "nothing that feels the least bit threatening".

Kara Swisher and Liz Gannes from technology site Recode were one of the few independent test riders, who described the car as having "ample" room despite being small, likely due to the lack of the normal controls taking up space in the cabin, and "that this felt a lot like a theme park ride".

Who built it?

Google has designed the car from scratch, starting with the sensors and a frame to interconnect them, then adding a cabin that does not block any of the sensors or create blind spots and eventually the body shell. The manufacturing of the 100 or so prototype cars will be done by a firm in the Detroit area, but Google declined to comment on which.

How does it work?

Powered by an electric motor with around a 100 mile range, the car uses a combination of sensors and software to locate itself in the real world combined with highly accurate digital maps. A GPS is used, just like the satellite navigation systems in most cars, to get a rough location of the car, at which point radar, lasers and cameras take over to monitor the world around the car, 360-degrees.

The software can recognise objects, people, cars, road marking, signs and traffic lights, obeying the rules of the road and allowing for multiple unpredictable hazards, including cyclists. It can even detect road works and safely navigate around them.

The new prototype has more sensors fitted to it that can see further (up to 600 feet in all directions) and in greater detail than the ones available on the previous repurposed Lexus and Toyota vehicles.

How safe is it?

The new car is the next evolution of Google's self-driving car. While the new frame is untested, the company's previous versions have clocked up over 700,000 miles of testing on public roads, mainly around California, including over 1,000 miles of driving in the most complex situations and cities like San Francisco's hills and busy streets.

The car itself is limited to 25 mph, which restricts it to certain roads, but also minimises the kinetic energy it could carry into a crash if one should happen. The front of the car is also made to be as kind to pedestrians as possible with a foam bumper and a flexible windscreen that is designed to absorb energy from an impact with a person's body.

Seat belts are also provided - a safety requirement for vehicles on the road - while the car has redundant systems, a "fault-tolerant architecture" as Google calls it, for both steering and braking, should the primary systems fails; plus that emergency stop button that passengers can hit at any time.

Google has also taken the data and behaviours it learned from its previous vehicles to create a defensive, considerate driving style that is meant to protect both the passengers and other road users. For instance, the car will wait a second after the traffic lights turn green before it moves off, although this could incur the anger of drivers stuck behind it.

Google also says that making it drive in a natural and predictable way has been one of the key goals, so that it behaves in a familiar way on the road for other drivers.

Why now?

Google says it has gone as far as it can with the current customised vehicles and that a new platform is needed to take the project and technology to the next step and closer to a product people can actually use.

For instance, the previous generation Lexus vehicle had blind spots right up against the car where the sensors couldn't see, something that needs to be eliminated in any vehicle open to the public.

The cars will first be used to test the software driving the car and push its capabilities. Google says at some point, when it deems its software safe, it will start putting real people into the cars beyond Google engineers. It will use the cars in a similar manner to the company's Google Glass explorer programme, analysing how people use them and what works and what doesn't.

Why do damn cute?

The car's cute looks and friendly "face" were created intentionally to be "very Googley" according to its designers, to put both other road users and passengers at ease with the new technology. The shell is also designed to give the sensors the best view of the surroundings.

Why does it still look like a car on the inside?

The new car has two traditional car seats, primarily because in this iteration passengers have to be strapped in like they would in any other car to meet safety regulations, which means using standard seat belts. It also provides a more familiar passenger experience, which at this stage is likely important to aid adoption.

Is this something I'm going to be able to buy?

Google's vision for this kind of self-driving car isn't an exact replacement for the one parked outside your home. They are designed to be more like shared vehicles, possibly within a family or more likely as a replacement for taxis.

These cars are still very much in the early prototype stage still, and Google is still trying to figure out how to make a product out of the technology, how much it is likely to cost and when it will be available.

Apparently it will not have ads according to Google, although whether it'll eventually have a small screen like some taxis now that plays video adverts, who knows. That will likely be up to the operator rather than Google.

Who will build it for me?

Google is proving the technology, but it is unlikely to make the cars for sale once that technology is ready for the mass market. It has said in the past that it is actively seeking car manufacturing partners, which means we could see a Toyota, Ford or Fiat-made Google car in the future, but that is all very much still up in the air.

When can I get one?

Google says the cars should be road-ready by early next year, but that testing would take more than two years. At that point the technology will be ready for the next stage, which is likely to be greater pilot testing.

Current expectations are that these self-driving cars are at least five years away from being mature enough to create a real, non-prototype product, but it may be far longer until you can buy or hire one for personal use.

What about legislation?

One of the biggest hold-ups to the progression of the technology onto the open road of Britain, the US, Australia and the rest of the world will be legislation.

A law was passed in California over a year ago that made the testing and operation of self-driving vehicles on roads possible, as long as they had manual override controls. The Department of Motor Vehicles in California is expected to issue regulations on the operation of self-driving cars soon, after which self-driving cars may become a bit more common place.

However, there is still much to work out, primarily revolving around what a passenger in a self-driving car and can't do - will they have to be able to take control at any moment, for instance - as well as questions around what happens when an accident happens, who is at fault and who pays.
* Google's driverless car: no steering wheel, two seats, 25mph* Analysis: a long and winding road to success for Google's self-driving car Topics

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Google's self-driving car: How does it work and when can we drive one?

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Google unveiled a brand new self-driving car prototype on Tuesday; the first company to build a car with no a steering wheel, accelerator or brake pedal. The car's arrival marks the next stage in Google's self-driving car project, which was born from the Darpa Grand Challenges for robotic vehicles in the early 2000s.

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Robotic exoskeleton to help rehabilitate disabled people passes safety tests - paving the way for it to go on sale in the UK

Hybrid Assisted Limb (HAL) robotic suit has passed German safety tests, increasingly the chances of it being sold in other parts of Europe

Worn as an exoskeleton, it responds to signals sent from a wearer's brain, enabling those who has lost the use of their legs to walk again

A robotic suit that is worn as an exoskeleton and can be used to help disabled people walk again has received an EC certificate from the German safety monitoring agency.

The approval means that the Robot Suit HAL, designed by Japanese robotics firm Cyberdene, has passed the required safety tests, paving the way for the suit to be sold in other parts of Europe, including the UK.

HAL, which stands for Hybrid Assisted Limb, responds to biosignals detected on the wearer's skin that are sent to the muscles which in turn makes the robotic limbs move.

THE HAL-5 SPECIFICATIONS

Power: Charged battery (AC100V)

Cyberdyne and Tsukuba University began hospital trials of the HAL suit in 2012 in Japan.

By October 2012 HAL suits were being used by 130 different medical institutions across the country.

In February this year, the HAL system became the first powered exoskeleton to receive global safety certification and it has now received a EC Certificate of Conformity in Germany.

This means it has passed the German safety standards of the TUV Rhineland agency and is allowed to be sold in the country.

The exoskeleton was demonstrated during a press conference to celebrate the news at the company headquarters in Tsukuba, north-east of Tokyo, Ibaraki prefecture, Japan.

It has been designed to 'support and expand the physical capabilities of its users, particularly people with physical disabilities.'

There are two types of HAL systems: HAL 3 provides leg function, while HAL 5 is a full-body exoskeleton for the arms, legs, and torso.

HAL 5 can help the wearer to lift and carry about five times as much weight as he or she could lift and carry unaided before.

Robot Suit HAL is a 'cyborg-type robot' that can be used to replace limb function or expand and improve a person's physical capability and wellbeing.

When a person attempts to move, nerve signals are sent from the brain to the muscles through motoneurons.

This moves the musculoskeletal system as a consequence.

Weak biosignals can be detected on the surface of the skin and HAL catches these signals through a sensor attached on the skin of the wearer.

Based on the signals obtained, the power unit is then controlled to move the joint in time with the wearer's muscle movement.

Cyberdene calls this a 'voluntary control system' that interprets the wearer's intention to move, using the biosignals, and registers these in advance of the actual movement.

HAL additionally comes with a 'robotic autonomous control system' that provides human-like movement based on a robotic system which works with the 'autonomous control system'.

This has been designed to make the movements as natural as possible.

Cyberdene claims HAL is the world's first cyborg-type robot controlled by this unique Hybrid System.

The company want the device to be used in various fields such as rehabilitation support and physical training support in medical field, Activities of Daily Living (ADL) support for disabled people, heavy labour support in factories and rescue support at disaster sites, as well as in the entertainment industry.

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Robotic exoskeleton to help rehabilitate disabled people passes safety tests - paving the way for it to go on sale in the UK

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Hybrid Assisted Limb (HAL) robotic suit has passed German safety tests, increasingly the chances of it being sold in other parts of Europe Worn as an exoskeleton, it responds to signals sent from a wearer's brain, enabling those who has lost the use of their legs to walk again A robotic suit that is worn as an exoskeleton and can be used to help disabled people walk again has received an EC certificate from the German safety monitoring agency.

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shutterstock

Lifeguards have been using drones as a way to keep an eye out for sharks, rips, and struggling swimmers for years. But now a drone has officially saved a life.

While testing out the adorably named Little Ripper drone, off Lennox Head in NSW, lifeguards received a call that two swimmers were in trouble. Within 70 seconds the drone had located the 17-year-old and 15-year-old and dropped off a floatation pod. The pair were then able to make their own way back to shore. Without the drone, lifeguards estimated it would have taken them several more minutes to get to the swimmers.

Lifeguard supervisor Jai Sheridan was the man behind the machine, piloting the drone through the whole thing. Speaking to SMH, he said: "The Little Ripper UAV certainly proved itself today, it is an amazingly efficient piece of lifesaving equipment and a delight to fly."

Lennox Head lifeguards have been testing the drones for two summers as part of a $16-million shark-spotting program.
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Lifeguard Drones Are Now Saving Australian Swimmers

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shutterstock Lifeguards have been using drones as a way to keep an eye out for sharks, rips, and struggling swimmers for years. But now a drone has officially saved a life. While testing out the adorably named Little Ripper drone, off Lennox Head in NSW, lifeguards received a call that two swimmers were in trouble.

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Flippy, a burger-flipping robot, has begun work at a restaurant in Pasadena, Los Angeles.

It is the first of dozens of locations for the system, which is destined to replace human fast-food workers.

The BBC's North America technology reporter Dave Lee saw it in action.

Video journalist: Cody Godwin

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Burger-flipping robot begins first shift

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Flippy, a burger-flipping robot, has begun work at a restaurant in Pasadena, Los Angeles. It is the first of dozens of locations for the system, which is destined to replace human fast-food workers. The BBC's North America technology reporter Dave Lee saw it in action. Video journalist: Cody Godwin

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Computers are dumb - and they sound dumb. It's a far cry from science fiction, where people chat to robot pals like they're regular folks who happen to be encased in metal. Google Duplex, announced at Google I/O, is a step towards that better future. Ish.

Rather than a chum for chats, though, Google Duplex is about having Google Assistant make bookings on your behalf. It brings together the company's investments in natural language, deep learning and text-to-speech, in a mix of convenience and dubious morals that only modern technology can offer.

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Computers are dumb - and they sound dumb. It's a far cry from science fiction, where people chat to robot pals like they're regular folks who happen to be encased in metal. Google Duplex, announced at Google I/O, is a step towards that better future. Ish.

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Marc Raibert, CEO of Boston Dynamics, has given a rare interview

He says he will sell the firm's dog-like SpotMini 'security guard' robot next year

Raibert added he doesn't rule out future military applications, but played down fears that his company's robots could one day be used to kill

It's never been clear whether robotics company Boston Dynamics is making killing machines, household helpers, or something else entirely.

For nine years, the secretive firm - which got its start with US military funding - has unnerved people around the world with YouTube videos of experimental robots resembling animal predators.

In one, a life-size robotic wildcat sprints across a parking lot at almost 20 miles an hour.

In another, a small wheeled rover nicknamed SandFlea abruptly flings itself onto rooftops - and back down again.

Now, in a rare interview, Boston Dynamics CEO Marc Raibert has shed new light on his work, claiming the machines could be used as servants rather than weapons.

Boston Dynamics has demonstrated little interest in elaborating on these glimpses into a possible future of fast, strong and sometimes intimidating robots.

For months, the company and its parent, SoftBank, rebuffed numerous requests seeking information about its work.

When a reporter visited company headquarters in the Boston suburb of Waltham, Massachusetts, he was turned away.

But after the Associated Press spoke with 10 people who have worked with Boston Dynamics or its 68-year-old founder, Mr Raibert, agreed to a brief interview in late May.

Raibert had just demonstrated the machine that will be the company's first commercial robot in its 26-year history: the dog-like, door-opening SpotMini, which Boston Dynamics plans to sell to businesses as a camera-equipped security guard next year.

Speculation about Boston Dynamics' intentions - weapons or servants? - spikes every time it releases a new video.

Raibert told the AP that he doesn't rule out future military applications.

But he played down popular fears that his company's robots could one day be used to kill.

'We think about that, but that's also true for cars, airplanes, computers, lasers,' Raibert said, clad in his omnipresent Hawaiian shirt.

'Every technology you can imagine has multiple ways of using it. If there's a scary part, it's just that people are scary. I don't think the robots by themselves are scary.'

The bigger question of just what Boston Dynamics hopes to accomplish remains murky.

Interviews with eight former Boston Dynamics employees and some of Raibert's former academic collaborators suggest that the company has long brushed aside commercial demands, not to mention outsiders' moral or ethical concerns, in single-minded pursuit of machines that mimic animal locomotion.

Former employees say the company has operated more as a well-funded research lab than a business.

Raibert's vision was kept alive for years through military contracts, especially from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA.

A federal contracting database lists more than $150 million in defence funding to Boston Dynamics since 1994.

Boston Dynamics said only it believes a quarter-century of work on robots will 'unlock a very high commercial value.'

It did not answer when asked if it ever entertained proposals to weaponize them.

Building robots that can jump, gallop or prowl like animals was a fringe field of engineering when Raibert and his colleagues began studying kangaroo and ostrich videos in their Carnegie Mellon University research lab nearly 40 years ago.

But agile robots aren't so sci-fi anymore, even if they can still seem that way.

In videos, the company's robots wander through a variety of locales - in and around the company's single-story headquarters, at a New Hampshire ski lodge and across the secluded meadows and woodlands near Raibert's home.

In some videos, humans kick the robots or jab them with hockey sticks to test their balance.

WHAT IS BOSTON DYNAMICS' SPOT MINI ROBO-DOG?

Boston Dynamics first showed off SpotMini, the most advanced robot dog ever created, in a video posted in November 2017.

The firm, best known for Atlas, its 5 foot 9 (1.7 metre) humanoid robot, has revealed a new 'lightweight' version of its robot Spot Mini.

The robotic canine was shown trotting around a yard, with the promise that more information from the notoriously secretive firm is 'coming soon'.

'SpotMini is a small four-legged robot that comfortably fits in an office or home' the firm says on its website.

It weighs 25 kg (55 lb), or 30 kg (66 lb) when you include the robotic arm.

SpotMini is all-electric and can go for about 90 minutes on a charge, depending on what it is doing, the firm says, boasting 'SpotMini is the quietest robot we have built.'

SpotMini was first unveiled in 2016, and a previous version of the mini version of spot with a strange extendable neck has been shown off helping around the house.

In the firm's previous video, the robot is shown walking out of the firm's HQ and into what appears to be a home.

There, it helps load a dishwasher and carries a can to the trash.

It also at one point encounters a dropped banana skin and falls dramatically - but uses its extendable neck to push itself back up.

'SpotMini is one of the quietest robots we have ever built, the firm says, due to its electric motors.

'It has a variety of sensors, including depth cameras, a solid state gyro (IMU) and proprioception sensors in the limbs.

'These sensors help with navigation and mobile manipulation.

'SpotMini performs some tasks autonomously, but often uses a human for high-level guidance.'

The company's robot videos have not been independently verified.

The defense contracts began winding down in 2013 when Google bought Boston Dynamics and made clear it wanted no part in military work.

Initially, some employees felt a sense of relief and cautious optimism after a pep talk by Andy Rubin, then-Google chief robotics executive and architect of the acquisition.

'He was talking about really ambitious goals,' said one former employee, who asked not to be identified because of concerns it could hurt career opportunities in the small and tight-knit US robotics community.

'A robot that might be able to help the elderly and infirm. Robots that work in grocery stores. Robots that deliver packages.'

But Rubin left the company the following year and his replacements overseeing Boston Dynamics grew increasingly frustrated with Raibert's approach, according to several people familiar with the transition.

Among the concerns: Boston Dynamics' lack of focus on building a sellable product.

By 2016, Google was looking to sell the firm - eventually finding an interested buyer in Japanese tech giant SoftBank, which already has a robotics portfolio that includes the cute humanoid Pepper. The deal closed earlier this year.

SoftBank declined to say anything about its plans, but Boston Dynamics' latest job postings reveal a heightened emphasis on finding something that sells.

One posting seeks a 'robot evangelist' to help find 'market-driven' applications for the machines in logistics, construction and commercial security.

WHAT IS BOSTON DYNAMICS' ATLAS HUMANOID ROBOT?

Atlas the most human-like robot in Boston Dynamic's line-up.

It was first unveiled to the public on 11 July 11 2013.

According to the company, Atlas is a 'high mobility, humanoid robot designed to negotiate outdoor, rough terrain'.

Atlas measures 1.5m (4.9ft) tall and weighs 75kg (11.8st).

The humanoid walks on two legs, leaving its arms free to lift, carry, and manipulate objects in its environment.

Stereo vision, range sensing and other sensors allow Atlas to walk across rough terrain and keep its balance.

'In extremely challenging terrain, Atlas is strong and coordinated enough to climb using hands and feet, to pick its way through congested spaces,' Boston Dynamics claims.

Atlas is able to hold its balance when it is jostled or pushed.

If the humanoid robot should fall over, it can get up on its own.

Atlas is designed to help emergency services in search and rescue operations.

The robot will be used to shut-off valves, opening doors and operate powered equipment in environments where human rescuers could not survive.

The US Department of Defence said it has no interest in using Atlas in warfare.

Atlas is capable of -

Standing up after falling over

Running

Balancing on a narrow beam

Cleaning, including vacuuming and sweeping

Karate kick

Throwing a paper aeroplane

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Sony's robot dog Aibo has been on quite the sabbatical - first released in 1999, the lovable electro pup continued to sell until 2005 before it was sadly retired to the kennel of discontinued tech.