entertainment
Tricks, play, trainable behaviors
Reviewers verified play value while documenting frequent falls
Independently testedVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Autonomous
- Human intervention
- None
Research record R-049Commercially available
Sirius
By Hengbot · China · announced May 2023
A $1,200 crowdfunded robot puppy with LLM voice commands, adored for its character and notorious for falling over.
Broader research scope
This is a research record, not a curated recommendation.
The main field guide selects 14 companion robots for deeper review. This entry belongs to a separate 53-record index that also covers industrial, research, and developer systems.
Research summary
What the record says.
Sirius is Hengbot's kilogram-class robotic dog, crowdfunded on Kickstarter (raising over $900,000 from 1,150+ backers) and marketed as the world's first trainable AI robotic dog. It responds to LLM-processed voice commands, performs tricks, and exposes customization tools for owners who want to program their own behaviors, with 14 degrees of freedom in a distinctly puppy-proportioned body.
Backer units shipped and were reviewed during 2025, with direct sales via hengbot.com since. Reviews consistently praise the design and personality while criticizing walking stability: it falls often and cannot right itself, a reminder of how much engineering separates a $1,200 pet from a $2,900 aibo.
Sirius fills the gap between desktop toys and Sony's flagship: a real legged robot pet, priced for enthusiasts, honest about being a work in progress.
Delivery evidence
Announcement is not arrival.
Owner verified
Kickstarter backer units shipped and reviewed in 2025; ongoing direct sales
Capability ledger
What has actually been shown?
2 material claims are separated by evidence setting and human involvement. The strongest recorded signal is Owner verified; it does not automatically transfer to every row.
education
Programmable robot for learning
Owner verifiedVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Autonomous
- Human intervention
- Owner programmed
Hardware record.
- Height
- 27 cm
- Weight
- 1 kg
- Locomotion
- Quadruped walking (stability criticized)
- Payload
- None
- Runtime
- About 40-60 minutes
- Charging
- USB-C
- Top speed
- Puppy trot
- Degrees of freedom
- 14
- Hands
- None
- Face / expression
- LED eyes; expressive ears
- Sensors
- Camera, microphones, IMU, touch
Software record.
- AI platform
- Hengbot stack with LLM voice-command integration
- Voice
- Voice commands via LLM; barks in response
- Languages
- English, Chinese
- Visual recognition
- Basic camera features
- Memory
- Training profiles
- Processing
- On-device plus app
- Autonomous abilities
- Autonomous tricks and behaviors
- Teleoperation
- App remote control
- Software updates
- App and firmware updates
- Developer access
- Customization tools and editor
Who can see, hear, or take control?
- Recording storage
- App-connected; camera data handled per Hengbot policy
- Remote operation possible
- Yes
- Teleoperation disclosure
- Owner is the operator
- Camera / microphone controls
- Power off
- Data deletion
- App account deletion
- Account required
- App account
- Emergency stop
- Power button; 1 kg toy scale
- Children and pets
- Light and safe; fragile in falls
- Security updates
- App updates
Lifecycle record
Status history.
- Preorder
Kickstarter campaign
- Commercially available
Backer shipments, reviews and direct sales
Source register
3 linked sources.
These sources support the research record as a whole. Unlike the curated dossiers, this imported record does not yet map every claim to a stable source ID.