When you think of autonomous filming devices, or in simpler terms, cameras that can follow you around without someone holding them, you’d probably think of drones. What you probably wouldn’t think of is a tiny robot on wheels that looks like it came straight out of the movie Wall-E.
This is Beni, a camera robot developed by Mondo Robotics. Standing at just 18cm tall, 21.5cm long, and 18cm wide while weighing only 1.7kg, it’s compact enough to easily bring around with you. For filming, it has auto-follow and pilot mode that you can control using a mobile app or a wearable motion-tracker remote control on your wrist.
In auto-follow mode, it has a claimed top speed of 28kph and can evade obstacles on its own and even jump over things with a maximum height of 10 inches. And if it gets knocked down, it also has a self-recovery system to stand itself back up. As for the resolution and frame rate, you have three recording modes to choose from: 4K at 30fps, 3K at 60fps, or 1080p at 100fps.
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Beni features quick-swap wheels and batteries. Mondo Robotics claims dry all-terrain functionality, with four-axis stabilization and optional off-road wheels to help keep the footage smooth when rolling through uneven surfaces. It has an internal storage of 32GB, expandable with a micro-SD slot, and has a battery life of 1.5 hours.
Other features include auto-edited highlights from your footage through the mobile app, as well as a ‘sports analysis’ feature to help you study your form and identify performance metrics with sports like tennis.
Currently, Mondo Robotics only sells Beni through Kickstarter with a ‘Super Early Bird’ rate. The Standard Combo costs $549 (P34,000). This comes with Beni, one battery, a motion tracker, a hat, and a protection plate. The Explore Combo, meanwhile, stickers for $639 (P39,000) and adds an extra battery, a charging hub, and an extra pair of off-road wheels.
There’s also a Duo Standard Combo for $1,049 (P65,000) and a Duo Explore Combo for $1,219 (P75,000), which saves you some money when buying two packages. Where would you take Beni if you had one? Let us know in the comments.
