A robot dog was damaged after a woman kicked it in the face at a nightclub district in Fortitude Valley. The machine was left with $2,000 worth of damage.
In a social media post last 8 January 2023, Mark Trueno shared a video showing a woman wearing heavy boots kicking his robot dog, named ‘Stampy’, right in the front sensors.
Further review of the footage revealed that the woman came back and tried to punt it again, but her friend once again called her out.
The machine, which is a Unitree Go1 model, was trotting down a Fortitude Valley street when it came across the woman and his male friend.
Trueno said he was “trying to gather GPS data, map 3d laser and stereoscopic visual data” to teach the machine obstacle avoidance when the incident happened.
He said that he was willing to let the incident slide but considering the damage and after “examining the onboard video, it is pretty clear this person thought it was funny.” The incident he said caused damage to Stampy’s forward-facing depth perception stereoscopic cameras, ultrasonic distance measurement sensors and led array.
“I just don’t understand what inspires someone to do that just because they’ve never seen one before. It wasn’t a case of her being scared, just trying to be funny. Considering it probably costs more than her own car, it’s just blatant disregard for other people’s property. Even her friend was in shock and apologised,” Mark Trueno writes.
The following day, Trueno said that the offender already contacted him, and it was discussed that since she has “basically turned herself in”, the $500 reward could just go “towards a charity for animal abuse shelters.”
He also appealed to those that don’t know her to be respectful as she already came forward and took ownership of the actions.
“…she sounds genuinely remorseful and honestly doesn’t deserve any more hate from people.”
Published 10-January-2023
