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This Guy Built His Dog A Robotic Friend For Company

February 13, 2012 / animal lover, bite its treat tube off and raid the stash!, communication, dogs, eat its wheels off!, good lookin', homemade, kinect, my dogs would not like that, not bad, pets, robot, ruff ruff (get it away from me!), sadness, scary, sure why not, video, what happens if the ball rolls under a cabinet?, x-box, yikes

robotic-dog-friend.jpg

This is a video of Microsoft robotics engineer Jordan Correa explaining and demonstrating the robotic "pet companion" he built to keep his dog Darwin company when he and his wife are at work. It was hacked together using an X-Box Kinect, laptop, robotic claw arm (for picking things up), a robotic throwing arm (for playing fetch), and even has a treat dispenser so the dog doesn't piss itself and run away every time the thing comes to life. Jordan can control the robot from work using a PC and X-Box controller. Impressive work, Jordan, but I've actually installed a hidden cam before to see what Chloe does when I'm not around, and it wasn't miss me or wish she had a robot friend to play with. It was sleep. Well, sleep, and fart in her sleep. At one point it looked like she woke herself up with real stinker, then blamed a pillow and moved to the other end of the couch. That's it -- that was her entire day. "I'm jelly." Same.

Hit the jump for the last thing your dog will ever see (before hiding under the bed).

Robot Dogsitter Of The Day [geeks.thedailywh.at]

Thanks to Mark, who agrees they should make a cat version. Oh yeah, cats LOVE robots (plus sudden movements). And to Jonny5 Is Alive, who won't be for much longer if I have anything to do with it.

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There are Comments
  • Andrew

    So.. What happens if the dog decides to attack the robot..?

  • Jared Gonzales

    ugly, pointless, dumb, and boring. yep, it's a microsoft product alright.

  • HotDamndrea

    But yeah, he should get his dog another dog. He's little- they will be much happier when The Dude is not around. 

  • HotDamndrea

    This would be great for people with assistance dogs! 

  • Because... errr.... WHAT DID I EVEN GET A DOG FOR TO BEGIN WITH
    Sheesh, give the dog away to a family that'll love and feel great to keep around!!!

    OH......... oh wait, just saw the thing, that's not a dog that's a rat...

  • Guest

    Or, you know, you could take your dog to work like everyone else.

  • only a matter of time before this guy comes home to see his chick dog a pile of bloody mess with the robot endlessly flinging its decapitated head over and over at the wall after confusing it as a ball.

  • You do realize that it's not autonomous, right?

  • Darwin not.

  • sweet.. not

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