Beetl Robotics wants to provide best-in-class robots using its expertise in cloud networking, computer vision and mechanical design. So, naturally, they turned to poop-scooping.
According to Beetl, more than 35 million households in the U.S. have dogs and backyards. The team designed a robot that uses computer vision and advanced sensor fusion to clean up after them. And if it works, well, that's one hell of a market.
The Beetl seems to work similarly to a Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. It deploys from a base and patrols a virtual map of the yard. Beetl finds the mess, deploys a clamshell jaw to clasp it, and then a trimmer to cut any grass that's coming along for the ride or otherwise stuck.
It also uses cloud-based AI to adapt and learn from each scoop, because no two scoops are ever going to be the same.
I don't know — I still say that if you can't clean up after it, you shouldn't have the dog, but maybe I’ve finally aged into common sense.
