An electric bike? That’s so uninspiring. You know what’s exciting, innovative, unique and has us exclaiming “We want one!”? An electric robot goat…that we can ride.
Strange as that sounds, that’s exactly what Japanese bike manufacturer, Kawasaki, has made and shown off to the world.
The robot goat, known as Bex, trotted around during its debuts at the 2022 International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo recently to the delight of visitors, albeit slowly. The quadruped robot demonstrated its walking ability that, while not as smooth and graceful as Boston Dynamic’s robot dog, was steady enough for a human to perch on its back whilst in motion.
The name could be a reference to ibex, a kind of sure-footed wild mountain goat, and that sort of describes what Bex can do. Kawasaki says that the robot goat, developed under its Heavy Industries division, was created to transport heavy goods on industrial sites.
Bex can use its legs when passing through uneven ground and kneel down on the wheels at its knees to move faster on flat ground. It can support a passenger of up to 100kg but the goal is to have a load capacity of 160kg.
You might be thinking that it isn’t practical to build a transport robot in a shape of a goat and you would be right. Kawasaki will work with customers to develop a suitable upper “body” for their needs and so the goat is just for demonstration – and we bet someone in the Kawasaki R&D department really wanted to ride a goat.
But what about electric bikes? Yes yes, there will be three new Kawasaki electric motorcycles sometime this year. But why ride a bike when galloping and arriving at your destination on a goat would be so much more fun?
