At least that’s what Japanese robotics company TMSUK wanted you to think. In 2002, TMSUK developed the Banryu (“Guard Dragon”) line of mobile home security robots. They were priced at $18,840, but hey, a cyberatops guarded your house.
The Banryu bots were designed to patrol homes and photograph and would-be intruders using a camera installed in their snouts, but their plodding pace (3 meters a minute) made them questionably useful. TMSUK later created a zippier, 15-meter-per-minute Banryu model (that could also detect carbon monoxide leaks), but sadly the whole “cybernetic dinosaur home security” trend never really took off. Here’s a video of one of the Banryu without its prehistoric skin.
[Via Plastic Pals]
