Rook roams around Burleson on a mission — and takes selfies along the way.
The $20,000, 3-foot-tall plastic-covered robot with friendly digital eyes is part of an Americans with Disabilities Act assessment of the city’s sidewalks.
Burleson’s study — in collaboration with engineering, planning and design consulting firm Kimley-Horn — will identify barriers to access for those using wheelchairs or other support devices. Findings will help guide improvements along 218 miles of city sidewalk corridors, including street crossings and ramps, and 8 miles of paved trails. The Daxbot robots, used by trained technicians, began the field work on Jan. 20. Burleson is the first Texas city to use Daxbots for the mobility assessment, company officials said.
Errick Thompson, Burleson’s director of public works, said the robots will help the city determine improvements for those who need help navigating along roadways.
“This assessment will give Burleson a clear and objective baseline of sidewalk accessibility conditions across the city,” Thompson said. “This is essential to establishing data-driven priorities for these important improvements for our residents and visitors.
Rook recently rolled around Mayor Vera Calvin Plaza in downtown Burleson, going up and down sidewalks and ramps. The semiautonomous robot can change its LED eyes to a heart shape and is intended to act as a mobile selfie station for folks it meets along the way. It is one of six robots doing the Burleson assessment.
The robots move at walking speed to capture accessibility data, including sidewalk slope, travel width, vertical changes and accessibility barriers. That information is used to create an inventory of sidewalk hazards and mobility challenges in the city. Rook can reach a top speed of 3 to 4 miles per hour. The company’s other robots are used for security surveillance and deliveries.
“By equipping experienced field technicians with the extensive, detailed measurements collected by the Dax units, we can accurately document conditions at scale and turn findings into comprehensive, practical recommendations,” Brian Shamburger, principal and project manager for Kimley-Horn, said in a statement.
Daxbot, based in Philomath, Oregon, manufactures robots that focus on safety and comfort to help municipalities meet ADA standards. The company recently worked in Southern California among others. Operators monitor the robots.
“They’re measuring pathways. They’re looking for obstructions like utility poles,” said Mason Reeves, Daxbot’s security sales lead. “Anything that makes it difficult for somebody with disabilities to traverse the sidewalk safely.”
The eye expressions are a tool for interaction intended to suggest the Daxbot is a “good” robot, he said. That’s why selfies with residents are encouraged.
“They change into happy eyes. They can do heart eyes. They can do cool sunglasses,” Reeves said. “It’s just to make sure people have a pleasant experience with robots. We’re going to have robots in public spaces, so we want them to be something that’s fun and not scary.”
People tend to like the robots, Reeves said.
“Kids will come up and give him a hug,” he said. “People will stop and take pictures and pose for pictures. He’ll lean his head to whoever he’s taking a picture with. … People tend to take him in as part of the community.”
Eric E. Garcia is senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org/2026/03/04/friendly-robots-assess-mobility-pose-for-pictures-in-burleson/”>article</a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report</a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&quality=80&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”>
<img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https://fortworthreport.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=434133&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https://fortworthreport.org/2026/03/04/friendly-robots-assess-mobility-pose-for-pictures-in-burleson/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”//cdn.parsely.com/keys/fortworthreport.org/p.js”></script>