Sanyo and Tmsuk have developed a robot that can alert its owners to a smouldering fire or an intruder via a howl or a mobile phone text message.
Dubbed 'Banyru', which means 'guard dragon' in Japanese, the four-legged robot is 1m long, 80cm high, 70cm wide, and weighs 40kg.
It can move at a top speed of 15m per minute, which is "more than fast enough for a home robot designed to travel in confined, cluttered spaces," according to Sanyo.
The company said that the guard dragon could "confidently" walk over 10cm gaps or climb a step 15cm high, using sensors located on its legs.
According to New Scientist magazine the robot will patrol a house and report back if it senses someone walking close by, or the scent of smoke.
Banyru can also be switched to 'pet mode', where he will act like a pet dog, obeying commands such as "sit" or "paw".
The robot dragon-dog will cost about $16,000 (£10,000) and will start selling next year, although pre-orders will start in December.
C# Web Developer, Finance, London Financial Services Required: C#, ASP.NET, AJAX Fantastic opportunity not to be missed!! This is a great opportunity to work on a unique objectives that no other company is doing working ... more >
Senior Hardware Engineer Scotland/Edinburgh Communication Systems Permanent Position 40-45K+Benefits A leading organisation involved with the design and development of data acquisition systems and synthesis boards for a range of radar, signal intelligence and software radio ... more >
FPGA Engineer Defence/Safety Critical Buckinghamshire Permanent Position 45K+Benefits A leading UK defence organisation requires an experienced digital design engineer to strengthen its existing development team due to a number of long-term projects that have recently ... more >
DSP Engineer 3 Months Contract Hertfordshire £Excellent Rates£ This position requires you to have experience of measurement algorithms development for the generation and analysis of digital wireless communication standards including GSM, EDGE, UMTS, WLAN and ... more >More job opportunities
Print
Discuss
Send to friend
RSS feeds
del.icio.us
Digg this
reddit!
