BOSTON DYNAMICS WILL SELL THEIR SPOTMINI IN 2019

You can soon be the owner of a bionic dog, instead of settling for any old family pet.

Engineering and robotics design company, Boston Dynamics, is preparing for a 2019 commercial launch of its canine-like SpotMini robot.

"The SpotMini robot … is one that was motivated by thinking about something that could go in an office – in a more accessible place for business applications. Or in a home, eventually," company founder, Marc Raibert, said last week at TechCrunch’s TC Sessions: Robotics event.

Small and nimble, the 2.75-foot-tall four-legged machine inherited the mobility of big brother Spot, with an added ability to pick up and handle objects using its claw-like arm and perception sensors.

Considered Boston Dynamics' "quietest robot" yet, SpotMini can carry a 30-pound payload while operating up to 90 minutes on a single charge.

The first 100 commercial robots will begin production later this year and, moving forward, the firm expects to scale production in hopes of selling the cyborg dog in 2019.

There is no word on pricing just yet, but Raibert boasted that the current prototype’s manufacturing costs are about ten times less than its previous iteration.

As highlighted in a recently published video (and seen in the video below), where the camera follows as SpotMini autonomously navigates a specified route through an office and lab facility, the bionic dog is pretty efficient.

“We drove it through this space manually to build the map; it [collected] the data, it built the map itself,” Raibert said. “And now it can travel where there’s map data by localizing itself in the map.”

The best part: There’s no need to follow it around with a poop bag.