An innovative pet business in Birmingham is branching out with a brand-new product category – robot dogs.
Pets Villa is the first pet retailer in the UK to sell the AGIBOT D1, a quadruped robot from AGIBOT (Zhiyuan Robotics), one of the world’s leading embodied-AI robotics companies.
The joystick-controlled D1 has a 3.5 m/s top speed, is capable of a 35cm vertical jump as well as stair climbing and backflips. Two versions are available: the Pro (£3,599) is ready out of the box, while the Edu (£6,499) is a full development platform aimed primarily at university robotics labs.
Pets Villa founder Frank Bao has a background in the technology industry and was invited to the UK launch event of the new robots.
He told PBW News: “The pet sector quite traditional, and I am always trying to explore and develop new products.
“Robotics is one of the more attractive and innovative sectors in the world, and I thought the idea of selling robotic dogs through the pet shop was a way of thinking out of the box.”
Pets Villa doesn’t stock and sell the robot in a traditional way, instead it places the order on behalf of an interested customer, with payment made via bank transfer against a full VAT invoice. There is an estimated delivery time of approximately four weeks from confirmed payment, with tracking throughout.
While Frank admits that the new product will never replace dog food as a revenue line, the addition of a robot dog to the store’s inventory enables the business to add interest to its website and social media.
He said: “It’s bringing people to Pets Villa who would never have found us otherwise – robotics students, tech people, event organisers. Nothing we’ve ever listed has earned attention like this, and attention is the hardest thing for an independent retailer to buy.”
Located in Birmingham’s Chinatown district, the business started five years ago as an independent shop, and now has more online sales than physical ones., with strong sales in e-commerce and click & collect. As well as premium product lines from the UK, the business also imports specialist lines from Germany and China and Pets Villa has created a section on its website selling feeding bowls for dogs and humans in a style matching the robot.
Zhiyuan Robotics specialises in humanoid industrial robotics, with models working in warehousing and cleaning applications. Clients also include football clubs, universities and event organisers.
Beyond the fun element, robot dogs can also be used for educating children about pet ownership or for supporting an exercise regime. The robot can react and can also be put to work, and the coding is in an open-source format so the higher version of the robot can be “trained” by an expert to behave in particular ways, such as following their human owner.
