Four-legged robot dog Xiao Hei developed by iFlytek. [Photo/WeChat ID: hefeigaoxinfabu]

A four-legged robot dog called Xiao Hei developed by Hefei-based intelligent speech and artificial intelligence (AI) company iFlytek was recently displayed in a program at the Global 1024 Developer Festival.

In the program, the robot was shown walking, running, climbing, shaking hands, crossing various complex terrain and other actions.

It also demonstrated its park inspection functions, including mask recognition - when someone is not wearing a mask, it will come forward to play a reminder, and license plate recognition - after receiving the location of an illegally parked vehicle, Xiao Hei will automatically go to the location, photograph the license plate and upload it to a system that will automatically call the owner to move the car.

According to Li Hao, an engineer at iFlytek AI Research Institute, Xiao Hei's abilities are even far more than that. Equipped with iFlytek's "robot superbrain" and relying on iFlytek's leading AI+ movement, navigation, voice interaction, video analysis and other algorithms, the robot dog has three major capabilities: autonomous navigation - avoiding obstacles indoors and outdoors; adaptive gait - no need to switch gait to pass through difficult terrain; and multi-mode sensing - voice interaction, visual analysis, odor recognition, sound imaging and other capabilities can be realized by installing microphones, speakers, cameras, and gas sensors combined with AI algorithms.

"Robot dogs with these three capabilities can now play a role in industrial inspection, park inspection, visitor reception and other scenarios. For example, robot dogs equipped with acoustic imaging can carry out acoustic partial discharge fault inspections in substations and gas stations, and search for fault points such as gas leaks," Liu Diyuan, an algorithm engineer on the iFlytek project team, said.

Developers at iFlytek introduce their robot dog Xiao Hei at a program. [Photo/WeChat ID: hefeigaoxinfabu]