A robotic horse to celebrate the year of the horse

A Chinese startup called Deep Robotics recently unveiled a curious version of one of its quadruped robots, a robotic horse inspired by animal biomechanics. The special edition was launched to celebrate the year of the horse in the traditional Chinese calendar, but beyond the symbolic appearance, the technology behind it is extremely serious.

The robot is based on the Link M20 industrial platform, a quadruped already used in real tasks such as industrial inspection, security patrols and operations in difficult terrain. This type of robot can reach speeds of up to 5 meters per second, approximately 18 km/h, and transport loads of up to 50 kg. Although the special version was created to commemorate the year of the horse, it also raised an interesting question about the future of robotics.

Really, the robberies of the future will need to be humanoid or machines inspired by animals could be much more efficient, a quadruped has an extremely stable base, can walk on uneven terrain and distributes weight much more efficiently than a bipedal robot, which is why robots inspired by dogs, horses and other animals are gaining more and more space in real applications.

Robot dogs for agriculture.

In agriculture, for example, these quadrupeds are already used to solve the last mile problem, in many farms there are areas where tractors simply cannot enter, sloping terrain, uneven ground or narrow passages for crops, in those places, quadruped robots can transport equipment and heavy loads much more easily, transforming tiring tasks into automated processes.

Deep Robotics itself is part of a group of Chinese technology startups known as the six little dragons of Hangzhou, which includes artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced technology companies. The company recently received almost 70 million dollars in investments, raising its market value to about 1.3 billion dollars, but perhaps the most curious question is another, if robots inspired by animals continue to evolve, will we one day see machines inspired by lions, tigers or even completely new creatures, because in some aspects the The future of robotics could look much more like a technological ecosystem, a world where machines walk, run and work not like human beings, but like mechanical animals spread across the planet. Did it remind you of the video game Horizon Zero Dawn? It wasn't just a coincidence.