Walking robot dogs could be your next side-hustle – and you don't need prior experience

A San Francisco startup is offering people $20 an hour to walk robot dogs through the city’s streets.

Based in the city’s Dogpatch district, robotics startup Dimensional posted a job advertisement seeking people to operate four-legged robots for shifts lasting four to six hours.

The robots, which are manufactured by Chinese robotics firm Unitree and cost around $2,000, can be controlled through a handheld remote or phone application.

Hopeful applicants are not required to have any prior experience with dogs or robots, though a since-deleted job listing said they must be comfortable handling equipment weighing 15kg (33lb).

If the robot dogs overheat or stop working during the walks, the human handler is expected to carry the machines back to the company’s office.

"Start right away and get paid right after each completed shift. Paid training is included," the job posting to the Facebook group Bay Area Jobs stated.

"Dimensional is hiring dependable people to operate a four-legged robot on outdoor testing routes around San Francisco.”

The idea is for the dog walkers to help improve the robots’ autonomous navigation and teach artificial intelligence how to control machines in the real world.

Dimensional is developing an open-source operating system designed to allow AI agents to operate different types of robots using natural-language instructions.

The ultimate goal is to allow autonomous AI agents to control robots capable of carrying out physical tasks like delivering food, working on construction sites, or performing tasks in factories.

AI agents currently lack the ability to control robotic hardware at the same level as humans in unpredictable environments.

Dimensional founder Stash Pomichter said the data collected from the walks would help improve how they perform in real-world conditions.

“Humans are still needed in the loop,” Mr Pomichter told The New York Times.

The company currently operates more than 100 robot dogs and 50 humanoid robots built by various manufacturers in the US, China and Germany

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