Real Dog Takes On Robot Dog

Alex the dog barks at Spot, the robotic dog. Spot is a creation of the robotics company Boston Dynamics.

Many people are watching a video showing a real dog barking at a robot dog.

The robot was made by Boston Dynamics, which is owned by the Internet search company Google. Like most of the company’s robots, it was designed for military use. But the military did not accept it, so Google is now showing it to the public.

In the video, the robot dog plays with Alex -- a real dog reportedly owned by Andy Rubin, who helped create the mobile operating system Android. Rubin now heads a company called Playground Global.

The robot weighs 75 kilograms -- ten times more than Alex. But Alex does not run away from the robot. The video shows him barking at the robot and preparing to attack it. The person controlling the robot directed it to move away from Alex. But this only seemed to make Alex bark louder.

I’m Christopher Jones-Cruise.

VOANews.com reported on this story. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted the report for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

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Words in This Story

barkv. to make a short, loud sound

mobileadj. easy to carry around or move