This robot could fulfil your wildest childhood fantasies.
Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer XPeng Robotics revealed its newest invention–the world’s first intelligent robot unicorn–in early September this year.
The robot Xiaobailong (a small, white dragon in Chinese) resembles a tiny unicorn. It has a yellow horn on top of its head, a black screen on its face, and attached to its sleek torso are hip, elbow and knee joints for rotational and lateral movements. This design allows the robot to simulate natural pony-like movements like prancing and trotting.
It has a car-level intelligent driving system, which is based on XPeng’s existing quadruped robot architecture design. Supported by an external camera and Light Detection and Ranging tech, the robot has a multi-dimensional perception of its environment and can recognize surrounding objects, build maps and plan routes. Its other functions include autonomous movement, target following, and obstacle avoidance.
The company claims that the robot unicorn, which is as tall as a child, is appropriate for young children to play with and ride on. It can develop emotional interaction with humans, has voice recognition and tactile sensation functions, and can express itself through multiple facial expressions and body movements.
Nothing has yet been revealed about the price or availability of the product. It is unclear if the product would even be sold in the market.
XPeng has already made a name for itself with its autonomous driving technology. Now it’s expanding its capabilities to the field of intelligent robots. There’s much to look forward to from XPeng.
Header image courtesy of XPeng
