These days, the tech world is obsessed with humanoid robots, and every valuable company is racing to develop its own bipedal droid that it can bring to market. Unfortunately, many of these robots still don’t work very well. Case in point: This week, a Russian company unveiled its much-publicized prototype for its humanoid bot, but the machine was introduced on stage in front of an audience of hundreds.
The robot in question, AIdol, is the product of a Russian company called Idol, which was presenting at a forum of the New Technology Alliance, which Telegram describes as a “consortium of companies for the development of humanoid robots.” The bot, described as “Russia’s first anthropomorphic robot”, unfortunately lost balance, fell down and broke down on stage. Several outlets have noted the sad irony that the music being played at the event rocky Soundtrack when the bot fell.
A video of the event clearly shows the robot’s not-so-great debut:
Idol CEO Vladimir Vitukhin is quoted as saying about the event: “This is absolutely real-time learning where a successful mistake turns into knowledge, and an unsuccessful mistake turns into experience. I hope this mistake turns into experience.”
If the recent incident was a little embarrassing, Idol is not alone. Most “robots” publicly unveiled over the years have suffered a similar fate. Remember when Elon Musk initially unveiled the “Tesla Bot” and it was just a guy in a suit? Musk has since shared more concrete evidence of “Optimus” (the bot’s new name), but the embarrassment of that original incident remains.
That said, there are other robotics companies that are doing amazing (if not very disturbing) things in the same spaces where other companies seem to be floundering. Boston Dynamics, for example, is the company that brought us a 4-legged robot “dog” named “Spot.” The company has also had some success in creating humanoid-style bots. “Atlas,” the bipedal robot built with funding from DARPA, is significantly more capable than many of its peers. Again, I don’t know if this is a good thing for mankind or not, but it is what it is.