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Quadruped robots

A four-legged robot that walks where wheels can't — stairs, rubble, plant floors — and carries sensors or an arm on its back.

  • robot dog
  • quadrupedal robot
  • four-legged robot

What it is

A quadruped has four actuated legs and no wheels for primary locomotion (wheel-feet, as on the Unitree Go2-W, are still legs). Standing, four feet make it statically stable; at speed it uses dynamic gaits such as the trot, and with no joint torque it simply lies down. That is the trade it makes against wheeled robots — more terrain for more complexity, less runtime and a higher price.

You will see it called a robot dog, legged robot or quadrupedal robot. In this taxonomy it sits under Legged robot, beside bipeds and multi-legged robots; a quadruped with an arm bolted on is still a quadruped, and a four-legged robot with a human-like torso is a humanoid instead.

What they are used for

  • Industrial inspection — walking rounds in plants, substations and tunnels with thermal and gas sensors.
  • Research — a common research platform, because the EDU editions expose joint-level control.
  • Education and hobby — sub-kilogram kits that teach gait control and single-board-computer programming.
  • Consumer — a small market so far; the Unitree Go2 is the first mainstream robot dog priced like a laptop.

What to compare

Attribute Why it matters In this catalogue
mass Portability vs stability; anything over ~40 kg needs two people or a ramp 0.45 kg (MangDang Mini Pupper 2) – 60 kg (Unitree B2)
payload Sensors, arm, extra batteries 0.2 kg (MangDang Mini Pupper 2) – 40 kg (Unitree B2)
battery_runtime Inspection rounds need 90 min+; hobby dogs manage about an hour 60 min (Petoi Bittle X) – 240 min (Unitree B2)
max_speed Research platforms are fast; industrial ones are steady (the Unitree B2 figure is a lab maximum) 1.3 m/s (ANYbotics ANYmal) – 6 m/s (Unitree B2)
has_arm Door-opening and valve-turning need the arm option yes: Boston Dynamics Spot, Luwu Dynamics XGO-lite3, Luwu Dynamics XGO-mini2S, Petoi Bittle X, Unitree Go2
wheel_feet Powered wheels on the feet trade stairs for speed on flat ground yes: Unitree Go2-W
ip_rating Outdoor and plant use 3 entries
sdk ROS 2 / Python access is what separates an EDU licence from a consumer one python (4), ros1 (3), ros2 (3), cpp (2), proprietary (1)

Price picture (observed 2026-10-28)

  • Professional / industrial: USD 13,000 (Unitree Go2-W) to EUR 95,000 (DEEP Robotics X30).
  • Research: USD 319 (Petoi Bittle X) to USD 2,350 (Unitree Go2).
  • Education, hobby & consumer: USD 739 (Luwu Dynamics XGO-lite3) to CNY 12,999 (Xiaomi CyberDog 2).
  • On quotation: ANYbotics ANYmal, Boston Dynamics Spot, DEEP Robotics Lite3.

Prices are the latest observation per product, in the seller's currency; see each record's offers for history and VAT notes.

In the catalogue

Professional / industrial: ANYbotics ANYmal · Boston Dynamics Spot · DEEP Robotics X30 · Unitree B2 · Unitree Go2-W
Research: DEEP Robotics Lite3 · Luwu Dynamics XGO-mini2S · MangDang Mini Pupper 2 · Petoi Bittle X · Unitree Go2
Education, hobby & consumer: Luwu Dynamics XGO-lite3 · Xiaomi CyberDog 2 (other)

Edge cases

  • Wheel-feet (Go2-W, B2-W): legs that end in powered wheels. Still a quadruped; wheel_feet: true.
  • Quadruped with an arm (Spot Arm): still a quadruped; the arm is has_arm, not a mobile manipulator.
  • Four-legged robots with a humanoid torso: not a quadruped — the torso decides — but no humanoid child fits four legs yet, so unclassified until a product exists.
  • Six legs: multi-legged.

Related

Legged robot · Biped · Multi-legged · Mobile manipulator · Joint module

Rule of membership

Four articulated legs. Wheel-feet (attribute wheel_feet) and add-on arms (attribute has_arm) stay in this category.

Category rb-3-1 in the whatrobot taxonomy.