Mondo Robotics, a Shenzhen company founded by DJI veterans, is trying to turn the action camera into a small two-legged robot that chases the shot instead of waiting to be mounted to a helmet, bike or drone.
The product is Beni, a robot camera dog now being offered through Kickstarter for about $600, with a planned retail price of $800. According to Mondo Robotics, Beni is intended to follow a person or pet, move alongside or behind them, or orbit them while recording stabilized video. The company is aiming to ship it this fall, according to Sean Hollister’s hands-on report for The Verge.
The pitch is familiar if you have watched a drone demo: automated tracking, stabilized footage and subject-following modes. The mechanism is different. Beni uses legs rather than propellers, so the company is selling it as a ground robot that can run, jump and recover from crashes instead of hovering above people with spinning blades. That distinction may make it more socially acceptable in some places, but it also gives the robot the usual ground problems: stairs, uneven surfaces, obstacles and whatever “automatic” means outside a controlled demo.
Mondo Robotics claims Beni can reach nearly 18 miles per hour, jump as high as 10 inches, climb stairs by hopping, and run for up to 1.5 hours on one charge. For video, the company lists 4K30 HDR, 3K60 and 1080p100 recording modes, with stabilization handled on the robot camera system.
Control is not limited to autonomy. The Verge reports that Beni can be driven through an app using one or two virtual joysticks. It also ships with a physical controller that includes a joystick and can be worn on the wrist like a watch. Users can also set it to trail a subject, track from the side or circle around them.
The useful caveat is that Mondo’s best claims are still claims. Hollister said he spent about two hours with the robot and found the demo enjoyable, but could not verify every advertised capability in that session. He also expressed doubt about how automatic Beni will be if the company keeps its fall shipping target.
That skepticism is healthy. Small consumer robots often look terrific in short clips and less terrific when asked to handle real sidewalks, pets, traffic, stairs, humans and battery limits in one continuous outing. Beni appears to be more than a render or an AI-generated fantasy, based on The Verge’s hands-on account. Whether it becomes a reliable camera operator is the part Mondo Robotics still has to prove.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
