My Little Robot Friend That Can Vlog Me! : BENI

[00:00:00]Mondo Robotics. They sent us their new camera robot called Benny and we're going to be testing it out over the next few days.

[00:00:08]Benny isn't just another camera. It's a fun little autonomous robot that can follow people, capture 4K footage from ground level, navigate different terrain, and even create automated edits from the footage it captures.

[00:00:22]>> [laughter] >> The kids are already pretty excited because it has loads of personality built in, as you can see. It can do little tricks like jumps, flips, and honestly seems more like a robot companion than a piece of camera gear.

[00:00:35]I'm especially curious to see how well [music] it handles tracking us around parks, open fields, and busy environments, and whether [music] it can create some genuinely unique shots that we'd struggle to get any other way. So, throughout this video we'll be testing out Benny in a bunch of different situations and seeing what this little camera robot is capable of. Okay, I've I've attached a little camera just to get like a perspective of Benny from behind.

[00:01:03]Oh, Navie.

[00:01:08]Benny!

[00:01:12]Benny, you go.

[00:01:15]All right, Benny jumping.

[00:01:21]Your little friend.

[00:01:25]Benny, [music] what's in your head?

[00:01:29]>> [laughter] >> So, the kids, especially Neo, has been obsessed with Benny, as you can see.

[00:01:37]I wanted to do some real-world tests just tracking myself down the street.

[00:01:46]>> [music] >> Benny hit a shop bump and fell, but immediately self-righted and carried on tracking me.

[00:01:59]So, I've been doing some little screen captures so you can see how the tracking works. This app has had some major updates since recording this as well.

[00:02:07]So, it looks pretty different now [music] and has some additional features. I was quite impressed how well Benny handled racing around [music] following me on the grass here as well.

[00:02:23]>> [music] >> What's going on?

[00:02:34]>> [laughter] >> Okay, I want to film some shots of our little robot camera Benny.

[00:02:40]>> Uh-huh.

[00:02:42]>> I want to do it hands-free so I've got this camera to shoot him. I was also thinking to get some fun shots.

[00:02:47]>> Mhm.

[00:02:48]>> Maybe I don't need my vlog cameras, I don't know.

[00:02:50]Maybe I'm overthinking [laughter] it.

[00:02:51]>> Yeah, I think so.

[00:02:52]>> I might >> He's the camera, that's the whole point.

[00:02:54]>> Yeah.

[00:02:57]This is Yeah, this is a perfect example.

[00:02:59]A normal person would just shoot >> Yeah.

[00:03:02]>> with Benny, but I want to shoot myself shooting with Benny for the vlog.

[00:03:06]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:03:06]>> So, this is why I've got too many cameras.

[00:03:09]>> Okay.

[00:03:09]>> Wait, how many cameras have you got?

[00:03:10]One, two, three, four, five.

[00:03:13]>> And your phone, six. Yeah.

[00:03:16]Don't worry, I'm bringing my tripod just in case.

[00:03:17]>> Did you tell them it's a parade? It's the flag parade.

[00:03:19]>> No.

[00:03:20]>> Oh. Today is a special parade happening in Hudson called Flag Day. Is it all of Hudson, America?

[00:03:27]>> flag parade.

[00:03:28]>> It's the flag parade. I think there's like a parade up and down the main street. This is Warren Street.

[00:03:32]>> Mhm.

[00:03:33]>> And it's about to arrive so >> Yeah.

[00:03:35]>> let's go see what's happening.

[00:03:36]>> Neo's already in location, look at him.

[00:03:38]>> Oh.

[00:03:39]>> Wait, look, he's got a little chair. Let me show you guys.

[00:03:42]>> Where did he find that chair?

[00:03:43]>> My mom got it.

[00:03:45]>> Benny, Benny, Benny's here.

[00:03:47]>> Oh.

[00:03:49]>> [music] >> Before the parade started, I wanted to test some more tracking shots with me running and weaving around on the road, and Benny was handling it pretty well.

[00:04:04]It's chasing you.

[00:04:05]>> [laughter] >> Abby loves Benny. Who's that, Abby?

[00:04:25]>> I got some close-up follow shots of Benny with my 360 [music] camera, because I actually found it pretty hard to film Benny in action from a static camera.

[00:04:41]>> [music] [music] [laughter] >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go, Benny. Go, Benny.

[00:04:59]>> [music] >> You got this shot.

[00:05:03]It's tracking him perfectly.

[00:05:20]Woo!

[00:05:24]>> [music] >> Oh, I love it.

[00:05:31]It was really funny to see the performers and people in the parade enjoying interacting with Benny so much.

[00:05:37]People absolutely loved it.

[00:05:46]>> [music] >> So yeah, speeding up and down the road, following sections of the parade, whizzing back and forth. I actually felt I wasn't [music] even reaching anywhere near the top speed, and I was trying to be careful not to drive Benny too fast.

[00:06:05]But, I'm definitely excited to take Benny out to track me on a skateboard or bike and see how it does.

[00:06:14]I did a lot of testing out and tracking on me and Neo, but another big feature is the pets tracking, which unfortunately I didn't get to try, but looks super fun.

[00:06:25]>> [music] [music] >> You helping me with some filming, Neo?

[00:06:56]Thank you so much.

[00:06:59]>> [music] [music] >> I did have a few issues tracking alongside people in the parade whilst they were going in and out of the sun and into shadows and back into sun again, but I've this is since been improved. At this point as well, I just want to say how impressed I was with the battery life considering how much I was using Benny, whizzing up and down the road, jumping, somersaults for hours. It was pretty incredible.

[00:07:37]>> [music] [music] [music] >> As someone who spent most of my adult life filming adventures, I've always been interested in new ways to tell stories and capture moments from different perspectives. But if I'm honest, the first thing that caught my attention wasn't even the camera side of it. Growing up, I loved sci-fi movies and I always thought it would be pretty cool to have a little robot companion rolling around with you. So, when I first saw Benny, there was definitely a bit of that childhood excitement that came back. Now, obviously, this isn't some fully sentient sci-fi robot, but Mondo Robotics have intentionally designed it with a bit of personality.

[00:08:27]It reacts to interactions, can be customized with different accessories, and feels much more like a little companion than just another piece of camera gear. And the funny thing is, the kids immediately treated it that way.

[00:08:39]Straight away, Neo was talking to it, following it around, and treating it more like a little friend that had joined us on our adventures. But beyond all of that, Benny is actually a really interesting filmmaking tool. It's an autonomous camera robot that follows people or pets around and films as it goes, creating dynamic moving shots from ground level that would normally be difficult to capture by yourself. One of the coolest places we tested it, as you saw, was the Hudson Flag Day parade. I had Benny tracking people walking along the parade route, weaving in between the marching people whilst we sat back and watched what it would do. Seeing it smoothly follow people along the street while capturing all the activity around it was a really fun example of what this kind of technology can do. So, over the last few days, we've been taking it all around Hudson through parks, open fields, and trails. And one of the thing I immediately liked is that it creates a completely different perspective to the cameras I normally use. [music] We are heading off now to a waterfall that's only 15 minutes away. It's like a little hike in the forest. It's going to be nice getting out in nature.

[00:09:46]Okay, Benny, let's go.

[00:09:48]He's doing all right with the rocks.

[00:09:56]>> [music] >> Benny, what you doing?

[00:10:05]It's It's It's definitely It's definitely not ideal the gravel track here, but he's doing all right.

[00:10:13]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Whilst Benny was tracking us through the forest, I was really impressed with the video quality even in overcast and shaded [music] conditions.

[00:10:36]>> [music] [music] >> Most of my filming is either handheld, mounted somewhere, or from a drone from above. And Benny sits down at ground level and moves alongside the action creating these immersive tracking shots that feel pretty unique. And watching the kids running through the field or crawling along the path or exploring the park from a lower perspective creates footage that feels completely different. The autonomous tracking is what makes all of this possible. You simply choose who you want Benny to follow and it [music] goes. It can follow from behind or from the side or creates orbiting shots whilst continually tracking the subject. It did struggle a little bit tracking people going in and out of the shade, but overall, I was pretty impressed. Another thing that impressed me was how capable it is outdoors. We used it on solid ground, grass, gravel, and paths, uneven trails, and open fields, and it handled everything pretty well.

[00:11:39]>> [music] >> The smoothest footage was definitely on the hard surfaces, but I do think they're releasing it with the option of these all-terrain wheels that you can switch out, which I think would help with some of the slipping I was getting on some of the more uneven surfaces that [music] we were trying it on.

[00:11:54]>> Another feature I loved and can see myself using quite a bit is the rotating shot around a subject. In a similar way to how I get drone shots like this, I can see myself using it as a unique way to show the environment I'm in.

[00:12:06]And then, yet again, just so impressed with it being [music] able to track Neo here even with such fast-changing directions so close up.

[00:12:18]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Okay, thanks for being our adventure buddy, Benny.

[00:12:43]So, yeah, it is designed for outdoor environments and can travel at speeds of up to 18 mph, which is mental. It can also recover itself when it gets knocked over, which feels like a useful feature when children are involved. And because it's a robot, there are a few tricks up its sleeve. It can jump impressively high.

[00:13:02]>> [laughter] >> It can do front and back and side flips and generally has a lot more character than you'd expect from a camera. It has this standby mode where it interacts and makes funny noises and shakes its head and stuff, which I think is why Neo and Navi love it so much. It's camera because of 4K with built-in image stabilization, but honestly, for me, the more interesting part isn't the camera specifications.

[00:13:26]It's the perspective. And after years of filming, it's rare that I come across a tool that genuinely creates shots that I couldn't otherwise capture.

[00:13:35]And Benny does that. It's definitely not replacing traditional filming at all, but it adds another creative option that can sit alongside everything else. I have come out with Neo on a little father-son playdate to a local park, little playground.

[00:13:49]We're going to have some fun. We're going to run around.

[00:13:52]>> [music] >> This one's the run that you press.

[00:14:04]Although there's a lot more functionality using Benny from the phone app, it was cool [music] to see how easy it was for Neo to control Benny with its little remote.

[00:14:14]>> [music] >> Benny's driving in a circle around us.

[00:14:26]>> [laughter] >> I've got the tracking mode.

[00:14:30]And like I said before, this is my favorite shot that Benny can create. I also actually think this is one of the most unique shots Benny can do, and it'd be almost impossible to create such a low-angle shot rotating like this in any other way. What makes Benny particularly interesting to me though is that this feels like the beginning of something bigger. Right now, it's already a capable camera robot, but Monday's vision goes much further than that.

[00:14:54]They're already talking about future developments like charging docks that would allow Benny to live in your home and always be ready to go. And the idea is that Benny becomes more than just a filming tool. Like imagine being away from home and having the option of remotely driving Benny around the house to check in on your pets or to see what's happening around the home while you're traveling. Or simply having a robot companion that's always there ready to capture moments whenever life happens. So yeah, it's early days, but that is the part I find most exciting.

[00:15:24]Benji isn't trying to be a better drone or a better action camera. It's creating an entirely new category. And after spending some time with it, it generally feels like a glimpse into where personal robotics could be heading in the future.

[00:15:38]If you'd like to learn more, Benji is launching on Kickstarter, and you can place a $10 deposit to secure $300 off the launch price, bringing it down from $799 to $499.

[00:15:49]We'll leave all the details and links in the description below. Thanks again to Mondo Robotics for sponsoring this video and letting us test out one of the most unique and incredibly fun bits of technology I've got to play with in ages.