Mondo Robotics pitches Beni as an $800 robot camera dog
The two-legged Beni is designed to follow people or pets while shooting stabilized video, with Kickstarter pricing around $600.
By Maya Lindqvist · Senior Technology Correspondent
2 min read
Mondo Robotics is pitching Beni, a two-legged robot camera dog, as a ground-based alternative to a follow drone for filming people and pets. The device matters because the company is trying to combine stabilized camera gear with consumer robotics, though an early hands-on report from The Verge said its automatic tracking still appeared to need work.
Shenzhen-based Mondo Robotics, described by The Verge as a company led by DJI veterans, is offering Beni on Kickstarter for roughly $600, with a planned retail price of $800. The company says the robot can follow a person or pet while recording stabilized video.
According to Mondo Robotics, Beni can move at nearly 18 miles per hour, jump as high as 10 inches and hop up stairs. The company also claims up to 1.5 hours of battery life and support for 4K30 HDR video, 3K60 video or 1080p100 recording, along with video editing.
The robot can be driven through Mondo’s app using one or two virtual joysticks, according to The Verge’s Sean Hollister. It also comes with a controller that has its own joystick and can be worn on the wrist like a watch, Hollister reported.
Mondo’s pitch also includes autonomous camera moves. The company says users can set Beni to trail behind them, track from the side or circle them in a drone-like orbit, according to The Verge.
Hollister reported that he first saw Beni in an Instagram video and suspected the clip might be AI-generated because of the robot’s apparent agility. After a two-hour in-person demo, he wrote that the robot was real and enjoyable to use, but still unfinished.
The Verge said Beni was able to run, jump, perform tricks on command and recover after repeated crashes during the demo. Hollister reported that he could not test every company claim in one afternoon and said he had doubts about the robot’s automatic functions if it is expected to ship this fall.
Beni is entering a category that overlaps with action cameras, gimbals, drones and small consumer robots. Based on the details reported by The Verge, Mondo is betting that a ground robot with a camera can be easier to use around people than a flying drone while still capturing moving subjects.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.