This jumping $800 robot camera dog filled me with joy

这款售价 800 美元的跳跃机器人摄像狗让我倍感快乐

DJI veterans are building a new kind of stabilized robot camera. 大疆（DJI）的资深员工们正在打造一种新型的稳定机器人摄像机。

What if you had a drone that wasn’t a buzzy, annoying fly people wanted to swat — but rather a cute dog that runs and jumps? What if it could do tricks on command and film your tricks as well? What if it could get right back up after a nasty-looking crash, dozens of times in a row? 如果有一款无人机，它不再是那种让人想拍死的嗡嗡作响的烦人飞虫，而是一只又跑又跳的可爱小狗，那会怎样？如果它能听从指令表演特技，还能顺便拍下你的特技动作，那会怎样？如果它在经历了一次看起来很惨烈的撞击后，能连续几十次立刻站起来，那又会怎样？

The first time I saw Beni on Instagram, I immediately thought it was AI video slop. Surely consumer robots aren’t that smart and agile in 2026? Then I took the real robot for a spin. Truth is, Beni does need work. But my first two-hour demo was so much fun, I badly want one for myself. 第一次在 Instagram 上看到 Beni 时，我立刻觉得这又是 AI 生成的垃圾视频。2026 年的消费级机器人真的能这么聪明灵活吗？随后我亲自试用了这款机器人。事实是，Beni 确实还有待改进，但我最初两小时的试用体验实在太有趣了，以至于我非常想拥有一台。

For roughly $600 on Kickstarter today or $800 full retail, Shenzhen-based Mondo Robotics is selling the dream of a two-legged robot dog that automatically follows you or your pet around. It claims that Beni can zip down the road at nearly 18 miles per hour, jump up to 10 inches into the air, hop up stairs, and last for up to 1.5 hours on a charge, filming and editing in super-stable 4K30 HDR (or 3K60, or 1080p100) as it goes. 总部位于深圳的 Mondo Robotics 目前正在 Kickstarter 上以约 600 美元的价格（零售价 800 美元）兜售一个梦想：一只能够自动跟随你或你的宠物移动的双足机器人狗。据称，Beni 在路上的奔跑速度可达每小时近 18 英里（约 29 公里），能跳起 10 英寸（约 25 厘米）高，能跳上台阶，单次充电续航可达 1.5 小时，并能在移动过程中拍摄和剪辑超稳定的 4K30 HDR（或 3K60、1080p100）视频。

You can control it with one or two virtual joysticks in the app, or the joystick built into its bundled controller that can optionally strap to your wrist like a watch. Or, just set it to follow you from behind, film you from the side, or orbit around you like a drone. 你可以通过 App 内的一个或两个虚拟摇杆来控制它，也可以使用随附控制器上的摇杆，该控制器还可以像手表一样佩戴在手腕上。或者，你只需设置它在身后跟随、从侧面拍摄你，或者像无人机一样绕着你飞行（移动）。

I couldn’t test all of that in one afternoon, and I have my doubts about the “automatically” part if it’s aiming to ship this fall. In my early demo, I had to manually activate its tracking modes, and Beni’s twin 150-degree obstacle avoidance cameras and UWB wrist tracker weren’t enough to keep it from clipping corners, smacking walls, or even running into my foot while trying to keep up with my kick scooter. (It did far better when I simply walked the streets of downtown Oakland.) 我无法在一个下午测试完所有功能，而且如果它计划在今年秋季发货，我对“自动”这一部分的表现持怀疑态度。在我的初步演示中，我必须手动激活它的追踪模式，而且 Beni 的双 150 度避障摄像头和 UWB 手腕追踪器还不足以防止它在试图跟上我的滑板车时蹭到角落、撞上墙壁，甚至撞到我的脚。（当我只是在奥克兰市中心步行时，它的表现要好得多。）

But I was floored by how stable and durable this bot truly is. It followed me down multiple flights of stairs, and even when I repeatedly and intentionally ran it into walls and off ledges, it always bounced back with no more than a deep scuff. And yes, it really can jump like it’s got a pair of Speed Racer’s auto-jacks! It’s so fun. 但我被这款机器人真正的稳定性和耐用性惊呆了。它跟着我走下了好几层楼梯，即使我反复故意让它撞墙或从边缘掉落，它也总是能弹回来，身上最多只有一道深划痕。没错，它真的能跳起来，就像装了《极速赛车手》里的那种自动千斤顶一样！这太好玩了。

The trick is the legs. Motors in the shoulders fling the lower legs downward, while spring-filled cylindrical joints absorb the shock. When my Beni landed after this spectacular jump, it stayed on its feet — but even when it doesn’t, it immediately recovers by rotating those legs to get its wheeled feet back underneath its body. Check out my embedded video in this story to see just how much beating Beni can take and still get up again! 秘诀在于它的腿部。肩部的电机将小腿向下甩出，而充满弹簧的圆柱形关节则吸收了冲击力。当我的 Beni 在完成这次壮观的跳跃后着陆时，它稳稳地站住了——即使没站稳，它也能通过旋转腿部迅速恢复，将带轮的脚重新移回身体下方。看看本文中嵌入的视频，了解 Beni 到底能承受多大的打击并再次站起来！

Beni’s got just enough personality that I felt a little bad slamming it into all those walls. You can pet it on the head, and it’ll jump or shake or coo at you while flashing colorful light (roughly 37 lux, these aren’t headlights) from its Wall-E-esque binocular eyes. Beni 的个性十足，以至于我把它撞向墙壁时感到有些愧疚。你可以摸摸它的头，它会为你跳跃、摇晃或发出咕咕声，同时从它那类似瓦力（Wall-E）的双筒眼睛里闪烁出彩色的光芒（大约 37 勒克斯，这并不是车前灯）。

The fact that it can look with its head before turning its body also helps make Beni seems alive — and it theoretically lets Mondo get away with just two obstacle avoidance sensors that point forward when it’s filming you from the side. There’s even a setting in the app that’ll let Beni rotate its head fully backwards so it can film you from the front, though I didn’t have time to try that one. 它能在转动身体前先转动头部观察，这让 Beni 看起来栩栩如生——从理论上讲，这也让 Mondo 只需使用两个朝前的避障传感器，就能在它从侧面拍摄你时完成任务。App 中甚至有一个设置可以让 Beni 将头部完全向后旋转，以便从正面拍摄你，尽管我没时间尝试那个功能。

Around back, Beni has a big 31 watt-hour swappable battery with built-in power button, a covered microSD slot for expanding beyond its 32GB of built-in storage, and a hidden USB-C port above the battery for charging and data transfer. 在背面，Beni 配备了一块 31 瓦时的大容量可更换电池，带有内置电源按钮；一个用于扩展其 32GB 内置存储空间的 microSD 卡槽；以及电池上方一个用于充电和数据传输的隐藏式 USB-C 接口。

The movable orange ears aren’t just so you can cock them at different angles to give your doggo different looks — you can unscrew the nubs underneath each of them to expose 1/4-inch tripod threads to attach standard photo/video accessories. You can also swap out the outdoor wheels for indoor ones with a single pinch, though the basic kit only comes with the one set. 可移动的橙色耳朵不仅是为了让你调整角度给你的“狗狗”换造型——你还可以拧下它们下方的旋钮，露出 1/4 英寸的三脚架螺纹，以便安装标准的摄影/摄像配件。你还可以通过简单的按压更换室内轮，尽管基础套装只附带了一套轮子。

There’s also currently two additional sets of electrical contacts for future-proofing, including four at the top that might help Mondo add a treat-tosser for your pets, and two at the bottom that could enable a future dock-and-charge station for your home. Mondo says it’ll release a 4G dongle in China that plugs into the USB-C port, so users there can drive it remotely, and it also plans to provide 3D printer files for additional camera mounts and body armor. 目前还有两组额外的电触点用于未来扩展，包括顶部的四个触点，可能有助于 Mondo 为你的宠物添加零食投掷器；底部的两个触点则可能支持未来的家庭自动充电座。Mondo 表示，他们将在中国发布一款插入 USB-C 接口的 4G 加密狗，以便当地用户进行远程操控。此外，他们还计划提供 3D 打印文件，用于制作额外的相机支架和机身护甲。

It seems like there’s planned depth in the app for power users, too. Mondo marketing director Cody Skene and creative director Ryo Miyamoto show me how you can adjust Beni’s ride height, the pitch of its camera and the degree of its stabilization, how quickly Beni moves and turns, even the curves of its joysticks. 对于高级用户来说，App 中似乎也预留了深度功能。Mondo 营销总监 Cody Skene 和创意总监 Ryo Miyamoto 向我展示了如何调整 Beni 的行驶高度、摄像头的俯仰角度和稳定程度、移动和转向速度，甚至摇杆的曲线。

And while Mondo isn’t necessarily making a full twin-stick controller of its own, Miyamoto shows me how Beni can work with third-party controllers, too, handing me a full-fat racing transmitter and a pair of Xreal 眼镜 he’s rigged up to Mondo’s app for FPV control. He says it’s even more fun with the Logitech G29 racing wheel he’s got at home, saying that it can plug right into a phone, and thus into Mondo’s app, as long as you’ve got a way to power it. He’s got a big external battery for that. 虽然 Mondo 不一定会制造自己的全功能双摇杆控制器，但 Miyamoto 向我展示了 Beni 如何与第三方控制器配合使用。他递给我一个全尺寸的赛车遥控器和一副他连接到 Mondo App 的 Xreal 眼镜，用于 FPV（第一人称视角）控制。他说，用他家里的罗技 G29 赛车方向盘玩会更有趣，只要有供电方式，它就能直接插入手机并连接到 Mondo 的 App。他为此准备了一个大型外接电池。