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This jumping $800 robot camera dog filled me with joy

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July 9, 2026 · 1:00 AM

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This jumping $800 robot camera dog filled me with joy

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This jumping $800 robot camera dog filled me with joy

DJI veterans are building a new kind of stabilized robot camera.

DJI veterans are building a new kind of stabilized robot camera.

by Sean Hollister

Sean Hollister

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Jul 8, 2026, 3:00 PM UTC

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The Mondo Robotics Beni.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Part Of Today I’m toying with see all updates

Sean Hollister

Sean Hollister

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is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

What if you had a drone that wasn’t a buzzy, annoying fly people wanted to swat — but rather a cute dog that runs and jumps? What if it could do tricks on command and film your tricks as well? What if it could get right back up after a nasty-looking crash, dozens of times in a row?

The first time I saw Beni on Instagram, I immediately thought it was AI video slop. Surely consumer robots aren’t that smart and agile in 2026? Then I took the real robot for a spin. Truth is, Beni does need work. But my first two-hour demo was so much fun, I badly want one for myself.

For roughly $600 on Kickstarter today or $800 full retail, Shenzhen-based Mondo Robotics is selling the dream of a two-legged robot dog that automatically follows you or your pet around. It claims that Beni can zip down the road at nearly 18 miles per hour, jump up to 10 inches into the air, hop up stairs, and last for up to 1.5 hours on a charge, filming and editing in super-stable 4K30 HDR (or 3K60, or 1080p100) as it goes.

You can control it with one or two virtual joysticks in the app, or the joystick built into its bundled controller that can optionally strap to your wrist like a watch. Or, just set it to follow you from behind, film you from the side, or orbit around you like a drone.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

I couldn’t test all of that in one afternoon, and I have my doubts about the “automatically” part if it’s aiming to ship this fall.

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