My new robot dog! XGO-Mini Review

Can't afford a Boston Dynamics SPOT or Xiaomi CyberDog? Then the XGO-Mini might be worth a look.
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[@CassioRogerioEskelsen]

Interesting to see RISC-V processors appearing in real products and not just in development kits. Excellent review Angus :)

[@Toastmaster_5000]

Agreed, and I think this is a perfect use for it too.

[@wagesof58]

"Yes, RISC is good." - Crash Override.

[@BRUXXUS]

I expect to see RISCV becoming a lot more popular if Nvidia is allowed to buy ARM. And…. Intel doesn’t destroy RISCV with acquisitions.

[@supermaster2012]

@@BRUXXUS RISCV core designs are public domain, Intel can't ruin anything.

[@hrmny_]

I mean it is a development kit 👀

[@Ludiks]

Your floor is also amazingly shiny and clean !!

[@tiestofalljays]

Fun fact, if you want to get a shiny floor, just throw up on it! .____.

[@gustarrezende]

Yeah, I saw it too.

[@danl.4743]

@@tiestofalljays Acid cleaning??? lol

[@mattimotion]

3:00 low budget mini pissbot finally is within reach! 😭

[@MakersMuse]

Legit my first thought hahahaha

[@NBFL]

Casually flexing his EVO 8 at the start

[@difflocktwo]

only reason I clicked

[@rokudrifter]

Same, so much respect

[@Mophonic]

You built what I dreamed 25 years ago- a mechanical dog with a screen as its face, showing you what it sees life- but I miss its thoughts running as codes over the screen (50%transparent letters) so that you see what it sees and even what it thinks in the same moment... its a weird and interesting feeling to see my dream/vision came true....created in reality by people on the otherside on the planet decades later. I ve had so many visions....I wonder what I ll see next Thank you.

[@MyklCarlton]

First mod - print some snow/grass shoes. Something that clips over the existing pads with a wider contact patch. If the device succeeds, throw the stls out there for $5 and have a beverage on us!

[@hillfortherstudios2757]

Cool to see you trying new stuff!

[@Craftlngo]

I worked on a walking robot with on board visual recognition for my masters degree twenty years ago. It had six legs, a webcam with 360x240 pixels connected via Parallelport to an EyeBot controller. Boy has this technology evolved!

[@TheQueenTom]

Expectation: Watch Maker's Muse for 3D printing... Reality: Gets new ideas for tech obsessions XD Thank you for such a col review!! Really hoping they follow through on their Kickstarter and production goals :D

[@AndrewAHayes]

All your suggestions are valid and to make this robot a viable educational tool a library of commands and their funcional meaning is 100% needed along with some video tutorials

[@TheEngineeringDutchman]

Nice review, you are such an honest person

[@jamesshawcross3656]

Has Angus ever made a video about his music equipment? I see tons of synths behind him in every video, if he hasn't he NEEDS to show us some of his music haha

[@MakersMuse]

All music on the channel is mine, but I haven't made a vid on it as such :)

[@SandyCrack69]

It would be interesting to see a video of the process of making a track as well as just the equipment ….

[@kyb7795]

Boston dynamics spot has started having puppies awww

[@DavidLindes]

More like China flexing its growing might by replicating Spot in basically a kids toy. 😮 Either way, we’re all doomed once these things figure out how to self-replicate.

[@20tw3ntee]

My only issue is that they generated a lot of buzz by suggesting that you'd get the Mini for the Go price and then switched it last minute. Felt like a bait and switch to a lot odf people.

[@MakersMuse]

Oh I didn't know that, that's naughty...

[@qupbuqqoywogh1108]

Angus, you could start with 3d printing some TPU slippers for your pet robot in order to cope with the slippery floor(s).

[@confuded]

1:09 - "Lets check out it's features". Dangerously close to Joerg Sprave there...

[@MakersMuse]

*turns robot dog into sling shot*

[@confuded]

​@@MakersMuse Since I doubt you can laugh with enough bass, add that as a feature to the dog as well =).

[@6yjjk]

When I was in school, a turtle with a pen in it was too expensive to waste on us kids. Now look at this thing.

[@iuhh]

One thing I learnt from playing with a self assembled RaspberryPi based robot dog is, having all the joints moving and running python to opencv your face is one thing, having it doing the Boston Dynamics dance, is a completely different thing. That's maybe 3 order of magnitude difficulty levels apart.

[@edwardfletcher7790]

It really needs something to protect that screen, it will definitely smash into stuff !

[@crussty3d]

Very cool little bot. Does more tricks out of the box than my pup.

[@rcmaniac25]

Me, a professional programmer: yes Angus... Join Us... we have cookies* This is tempting. I haven't looked at the campaign itself... so not sure if this stuff has been answered already. Also, not a robotics developer, so my responses have been a combo of 2nd hand knowledge, handful of robotics platforms I looked at/played with, and general "this is how I would code it if I had access to one" I've seen a couple of these out there but they either look like a cheap plastic toy (with probably the expected amount of functionality), or are literally Boston Dynamic's Spot / clone of Spot and go for 5 digit price tags. I have about as much experience with robotics as Angus may have with programming... so without knowing physical capabilities, I worry about it not being able to flip itself back over and how much force feedback it is capable of (if it encounters a random bump on the floor, would it register resistance/lack of, or would it trip and require a self-righting routine. Those are the kinds of things I would go "ah, I can write a close loop if I could get that stuff..." I also feel like gut feeling would be to replace whatever the AI module is running (probably simple Linux distro with an OpenCV implementation) with something that does OpenVX, TensorFlow, or some combo of things. The bouncing loop is definitely a case of "find face, get distance from center of view, move" and someone hard coding some amount of movement... so it overshoots the center and goes back to the prior state... and loops. While a library would be great, half the time the libraries for this stuff are just a bunch of pre-canned movements. Great for learning, getting into code/robotics... but watch some videos from Adam Savage interacting with Spot and see how Spot is programmed and you'll see those exist but that the dances, the parkour, the fancy use cases that make people's minds go "OMG, the future" don't use them... so I'd rather have just a direct serial access to the core controller and a command generator + feedback loop so I could try and make it walk to general waypoints without needing fixed "walk 10 units. walk 10 units. walk 10 units" and, you know, try to be "smart" instead of a show piece that always seems to be the harsh reality of these systems. Could be wrong, but I need to look at the campaign first. *ok, the frontend team has cookies. They want you to accept them when you access the website. The rest of us would like them to bake some cookies instead.

[@heatherhaines8734]

I can’t wait to see somebody make this be able to go in water and be all-terrain.

[@TheEdgeofTech]

Awesome! Great video! Maybe they could out a small water tube in the leg area for the "PEE" stance? 😂 I was offered one and responded, but they never responded back to me. Lol

[@MakersMuse]

Haha yeah needs external plugs for a pump! It's a bit odd that there's no other reviews... I wonder how many they did send out.

[@thementdl]

ultra nice project, looks like it's capable of emotion like a dog, missing the tail tho, but anyway one of the nicest projecs

[@electronic7979]

Excellent 👏👏👏

[@brianpercival1829]

Reminds me of my BB-8 that rolls around the floor with the phone app.

[@bwselectronic]

Reminds me a little of those spider like robots in a movie with Tom Sellic years ago. Definitely interesting

[@90benj]

I agree with your friend, in future there should be a wrapper library, that makes the handling a lot smoother. But depending on how common the type of AI platform is in the future, if it's open source accesssible etc. there will be definitly a community effort to program such wrappers. Shouldn't be too hard in my estimation.

[@bridgetclinch3678]

Nice, I'm just getting bits together to make a Pi car to learn on, definitely want to add sensors and complexity as I learn though, will KISS for now though with wheels rather than legs, this could be something to look at down the track, and it can always be augmented/have parts replaced with 3d printed bits for housing more sensors and things

[@Kaffeeteria]

Looks interesting. As for the doggy not being able to stand up when it topples over, maybe the legs and the head could just rotate around the body to ift it up again.

[@alexiekola]

its cute as, but do agree with you external ports and some mount holes for different modules would be wicked.

[@kikihobbyrepair]

This is so cool that I want to build one myself :)

[@danl.4743]

Do you have Chinese government capability of spying and stealing trade secrets?

[@kikihobbyrepair]

@@danl.4743 haha 😆, (un)fortunately no. It would be a cool project for the for the future to build something similar but for sure way less capable. My problem is that my programming skills are not the best 🙂

[@wfpelletier4348]

My late wife often quoted that old saying, "the only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys."

[@TiagoTiagoT]

Hardware kickstarters are a huge gamble; quite easy to underestimate the challenges of large-scale manufacture of electronics and stuff. If this reaches the full production stage, I might consider one though; seems to have quite a bit of potential.

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

This is super interesting STEM education like this is literally what I do for work I cringed a bit when looking at their blockly implementation If you ever want a second opinion on something like this in the future, I'd be happy to help out

[@angelx9724]

Rigger capabilities 🤩

[@truthdoesnotexist]

this seems like a mini version of the robot dog that is a thing now

[@OttomanDrifter91]

Nice Enkei wheels bud

[@MakersMuse]

Haha, they're rashed! I didn't do it...

[@OttomanDrifter91]

@@MakersMuse Oh no lol

[@BlondieSL]

MM, perhaps a fun project is to code it to dance while you play something snappy on the keyboard. 😜😁🎶🎵🎹🎹

[@inneryard]

roland jp 8080 and behringer 2600 very nice ;)

[@tlfbshti364]

Wouldn't mind a video on the evo ;)

[@tenchuu007]

It's reassuring to have your vetting.

[@tomioka.6703]

Can't wait to modify your dog with some new feet xD

[@MakersMuse]

Yeah after testing on wood he needs a little more grip! Some TPU ones would be a great first mod.

[@--Nath--]

Put some little sneakers on it like Adam did.

[@tomioka.6703]

@@--Nath-- lol nice idea

[@tomioka.6703]

@@MakersMuse Oh nice, Make it like really irregular, so it might get more grippppppp

[@aritgirlfoamflinging4816]

8:52 ah. I know that turret!

[@GaryMcKinnonUFO]

Dying to know what's on the rack system, all music related ?

[@VagabondTE]

I know this seems like an easy answer but this is amazing for battle robots. The biggest problem I have with all battle robot scenes is the dominance of wheels and spinning weapons. I think they should be baned or have a wheel-less weight class so we can get some more creative robots out there and more interesting fights. The low-cost and approachability of this could make that a reality.

[@dcriley65]

I want one with a taser. Oh and mace. yea mace! 😉

[@d3dd]

Anyone else notice the Kitboga suggestions at 8:08? Guess the lockdown is giving Angus a lot of free time...

[@KornLord]

Looks like a walking graficcard 😅 I need one 😁👍

[@monsieur_piyushsingh]

I've built a quadrupedal robot too

[@Poltard]

It’s like a cuter smaller and more transportable spot from Boston dynamics

[@TomandSpace]

7:20 Once you've seen the 255, you never forget haha

[@dominionscave4752]

looks a lot like those bots in the War of the worlds that is on SBS, and the dog in the black mirror episode Metalhead shown on the ABC about a month ago. It even looks similar to some four legged bots I have seen in some military videos.

[@bonce]

I was thinking that very much like the 3d printed wobbly wheels, maybe people could give you code blocks for navigating different types of terrain? I'm already thinking about how to walk it through grass and definitely how to run at a Dodo...

[@VagabondTE]

The very second I first saw this machine on frame I thought "You could slap a smart phone on that and probably run AI by app."

[@licensetodrive9930]

Part of me wants to try putting a miniature camera with transmitter on the XGO-Lite, along with a radio receiver to make a remote control FPV dog, with various modes/programmed movements activated by the switches & dials on the RC transmitter.

[@MakersMuse]

Definitely doable, just gotta decode the receiver with an Arduino or something then send the right serial lines.

[@iAmTheSquidThing]

It looks as though it should be physically able to traverse grass, just with different motion programming.

[@woowtech2972]

Wwoooww tech👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@SandyCrack69]

The thing that has me pondering on whether I should back it is not whether it will be delivered or not as it seems to be developed to a level impossible to fake, but how sophisticated the AI is in the robot. Not that it’s not powerful enough but more along the lines of what will happen with the images it sees and where it’s uploaded too and who has access to them. As for the learning capability to work it needs to share information in the cloud. And by looking a current affairs shows and the news in general the know how of Chinese tech companies in the field of AI is world leading when it comes to analysing people … That said who knows what happens to the data in the off the self intel and other western companies AI development platforms too. That said it’s a very tempting robot.

[@jaimegomez6748]

Ya esta disponible en amazon.

[@Skott62]

I would wait for 2.0 to come out before buying.

[@AtreidaeChibiko]

Now. You need to print a Sweetie Bot case for it...

[@zeekjones1]

*It wears a watch for a face!!!* Jokes aside this is pretty neat.

[@lmamakos]

My cats are going to love being chased around the house by something like this. I shall name him "K-9."

[@RomanoPRODUCTION]

Angus impales our new doggy 😊 ❤️

[@OccupyArnhem]

I'm curious what James Bruton would have to say about this.

[@MIK33EY]

KUDOS on your Enkei wheels 👍🏼👍🏼😎😎😎

[@ninjasquee2475]

Nice video! What’s the battery life on running it continuously?

[@dim1723]

Great toy but what would you do with it besides tinker? I think a sphero would be a better teaching toy.

[@newmonengineering]

Honestly it's cute, but for about the same price I can build something similar with a jetson nano. It would be a bit larger but definitely faster processing. But it wouldn't have a GUI programming like this one it would be all python and c++.

[@edwardfletcher7790]

Doesn't the Xaomi Cyberdog kind of destroy this one in every way ? Especially because the Cyberdog is OPEN SOURCE !!

[@Toastmaster_5000]

I don't think a better camera would be worthwhile. Processing power requirements go up exponentially as you increase resolution. The camera is good enough to achieve the basic functions this toy was advertised to do, while keeping costs low and performance reasonable.

[@MakersMuse]

True! It performs fine under decent lighting.

[@ECitta]

Wait a minute, I see Brembos and Evo 8 wheels at the start of this video. But that little part of the bumper I can see in the top right doesnt look like an Evo...I'd guess, Galant VR4?

[@MakersMuse]

Expertly spotted! Ye

[@ECitta]

@@MakersMuse hell yeah! 6.5 TME owner here, so same era. The golden age of Japanese cars, back when Mitsubishi still made performance cars :(

[@MakersMuse]

@@ECitta Yeah it's a massive shame, they're all getting a bit too old to properly enjoy now as well what with collector prices and hard to find parts. Need a modern revival!

[@steve_beatty]

too cool...too many bad kickstarters for me to hope this will be produced eventually..I'll wait for the 3d printed version to appear on thngiverse 😉

[@busterdafydd3096]

7:43 yea you shouldn't need sleeps unless you want them. Robots are robots so their motions should fast! If it causes the robot to fall other in certain operations then add some kind of hypervisor which checks what the robot should be doing and adjusts the commands if it sees something is wrong

[@SLU2MOVIES]

2 Questions Can it carry beer? Can it poor the beer in an inappropriate way?

[@snickersbar2]

Hey Angus are you going to enter XGO-Mini into robo wars lol

[@MakersMuse]

that might just be robo animal cruelty lol

[@MIK33EY]

Curious to know what’s above the JP-8080 module?? I’ve mucked about with a virtual 8080 (or maybe it was the 8000) in Traktor years ago but have never “fiddled” with the real thing.

[@fluXxSieRra]

just seeing the wheels in the backround i can tell u what u drive , an Evo 8

[@danl.4743]

I want to get this doggy just so I can send it into my workshop neighbors while I'm hiding behind the corner. Send it in, and make him lift is rear leg to "pee" on their most precious project. Imagine the look on their faces. LOL

[@literalcupoftea6299]

Hey can you ask them to use a type c cable instead of micro usb

[@dinosoarskill17]

damn bro you got enkei's

[@__--JY-Moe--__]

adda boy!

[@N.M.E.]

8:25 Grineer Akkalak-Turret from Warframe 😂 It's even the picture from the codex

[@Jonas_Mikkelsen]

8:07 Kitboga recommendations on KZbin in the background

[@MakersMuse]

He's usually running while I film haha

[@Paul_Bearden]

There are several limiting factors regarding the number of functions the robot may have. For example, the processing unit may only operate so many sensors, the processor may only operate so many commands. Also, the more complicated the robot becomes, the more expensive it will be at launch. I am working on my own 3D printed robot, it will be a 6 foot tall humanoid robot, check it out on my channel.

[@CaptainFalcon92]

Nice rims, now you teased about your JDM car, we all wanna know. evo ?

[@Sufi39]

Woah

[@bentebrunsvelt319]

Nice doggie 👍👍🇳🇱

[@chaymberr_crafts]

Nooiceee! instead of pising beer it will piss shots lol

[@mme725]

5:08 "whatever this is"? You mean my favorite mode? :P

[@mystockmarketpicks263]

I am invested in the chip designer Canaan who are on the nasdaq

[@danl.4743]

Please add a little plastic bottle inside the robot dog so that I can put lemonade in it, and have him pee it into a glass for when I have guests coming over.

[@TheSoundOfTwang]

Modern day Tamagotchi

[@androiduberalles]

And there's me, a car guy, more interested in what the enkeis are on

[@Homme_Pur]

you're not alone

[@timojissink4715]

It's a nice robot and makes you apreciate the Spot quality. Overall quality looks great but camera + display seem way too poor quality. That part looks like a school project rather than a product. The extra functionality it provides is actually great and the software seems really nice. Now just give it a hardware upgrade for a bit higher price and it's perfect.

[@aronseptianto8142]

just an fyi, making a DIY robot dog isn't that hard of a challenge. (given small scale) so if you want to vlog it just like your supposed to be sand bot, I think it'll be a fun project to follow along you won't even need an imu if you're doing 6 legged (which is still equally cool)

[@gustarrezende]

Any resemblance to the Spot Mini is purely coincidental.

[@felipenavas]

They are not the first to come up with this design... www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090447920302501

[@telectronix1368]

I for one welcome our new robot overlords.

[@technodrone313]

You should call it bruce so nobody gets confused.