Minitaur is designed to be an affordable and practical quadruped robot. Not only can it cross obstacle-strewn terrain impassable to wheeled and tracked robots, it can also climb stairs and chain-link fences. Jiren Parikh, CEO of its manufacturer, Ghost Robotics, says it can even clamber up trees. The current version of Minitaur weighs 6 kilograms and can crawl, sidle crabwise or rear up against a vertical surface just like an excitable dog to reach high objects. Attachments on the end of the robot's legs allow it to open door handles as well as to grip and climb fences.

Bounding around like an excitable puppy, this amazing four legged robot can open doors and even climb over fences by itself. The Ghost Minitaur can be programmed with a series of different gaits from bounding, trotting, and walking to something called pronking – the kind of four-legged spring seen in gazelles. The miniature robot, which measures just 1.3 feet long (40cm) – about the same as a small dog – has a top speed when running of just 4.5 mph. The team behind the Minitaur are currently selling them for around 10,000 a go but they hope to reduce the price as demand increases. The developers have used a series of direct drive electric motors and some custom electronics to allow the robot to move in a range of different ways.