Meet Bex, Kawasaki’s Rideable Robot Goat

[Hugh Janus]

Have you ever imagined riding a robot goat? Kawasaki engineers did ahead of unveiling Bex at the 2022 International Robot Exhibition. (Kazumichi Moriyama / Youtube/)

Imagine a robot. What comes to mind?

For Kawasaki’s robotics division, the answer is a goat.

The Japanese manufacturer unveiled Bex, its rideable robot goat, to over 140,000 visitors to the 2022 International Robot Exhibition, the world’s largest robot trade show, which was held in Tokyo March 9–12.

This robogoat is a by-product of Kawasaki’s humanoid program, which recently unveiled Kaleido, a robot engineered in a joint effort with the University of Tokyo.

Kawasaki video shows an all-white Bex, which was named after the Ibex, a goat found in the Middle East, slowly prancing around the perimeter of an enclosed stage as rather ungoatlike lights flash along its neck and horns. The goatbot moves in a fashion similar to Spot, the popular, arguably creepy, undeniably agile quadrupedal robot from Boston Dynamics.

Bex stands alone, showing off its robotic profile. (Kazumichi Moriyama / Youtube/)

In the video Bex can be seen stopping at the front of the stage, folding its four legs in half, and  extruding eight wheels, two on each robotic leg. Two wheels also descend from Bex’s belly analogue, and the robot proceeds forth like a complex mechanical ungulate roller skate.

Bex then moves to pick up a rider, who straddles the goat by means of footpegs, appendages which, like the aforementioned wheels, are not usually found on biological goats and which must therefore be acknowledged as a notable goat improvement. The rider-demonstrator appears to control the cybergoat through a handlebar with a digital interface as Bex rises from its wheels to its legs and takes another lap around the stage, the rider perched atop like a complex metaphor for the unfathomable strangeness of mankind’s technological goat-based future.

The speeds attainable by the mechanogoat while either prancing or being ridden seemed objectively slow, and Kawasaki has yet to release any information regarding top speed; range; the possibility of Bex producing tangy milk and cheeses in the manner of its biological forebears; or whether Bex models will become commercially available.

Bex lowered and in electric drive mode. (Kazumichi Moriyama / Youtube/)

And what of Kaleido, the robot unveiled in December 2017 during the International Robot Exhibit? The humanoid robot was updated for 2019 and shown at that year’s robot exhibition walking on a treadmill and replicating a victim rescue during a staged disaster scenario. Kawasaki says Kaleido has a “similar physique as a human” and features a “tough structure that does not break easily even if it falls”; it is unclear if this is intended to be encouraging news.

Meet Kaleido, Kawasaki’s humanoid. (Kazumichi Moriyama / Youtube/)

Whereas the focus of Kaleido is reportedly disaster relief, Bex seems to be utility- and leisure-based. Bex can carry up to 220 pounds and would be ideal for large factories, farms, or large factory farms. The upper body is modular, allowing owners to remove the goat section for added utility and visual strangeness.

Demand for, or at least interest in, robots has recently risen due to the pandemic labor shortage in 2021. According to Business Insider, a record 29,000 robots were ordered during the first nine months of 2021.

The humanoid-replacement race is therefore on among many innovative companies; this naturally and inevitably includes Tesla. The electric-car manufacturer’s CEO, Elon Musk, who despite widespread speculation claims not to be a humanoid robot himself, has discussed releasing the Tesla Bot in 2022 with the not-exactly-original name “Optimus.”

Kawasaki also knows labor equipment is essential and evidently plans to push forward with non-humanoid advancements such as Bex, the prancing robot goat.

Kawasaki’s robot goat Bex can carry up to 220 pounds. (Kazumichi Moriyama / Youtube/)

Source

[Buckster]

Something for Pete, maybe they will do a sheep next.

[XTreme]

You seen this bizarre shit @Tym?

[Tym]

Two things, first off, damn dyslexia, i thought it said reliable, not ridable, reliable kawasaki...

 

Second, off, id bet id be great at trials riding on that thing.

The bike can put a foot down, right?

 

 

[Pedro]

That's a big ass goat!

[Buckster]

3 minutes ago, Pedro said:

That's a big ass goat!

Pete likes them with big asses. 

[Pedro]

2 minutes ago, Buckster said:

Pete likes them with big asses.