Maxim Shipenkov / EPA
Presentation and fall of a Russian humanoid robot
AIdol staggered onto the stage, looking like an elderly man looking for a public bathroom. After waving shyly, he took a few steps — and ended up collapsing on the ground.
Others’ shame: Russia presented its first autonomous humanoid robot, in a attempt to rival with North American giants like Tesla.
However, judging by the first public presentation of the machine, which fell face down on the floor After taking just a few steps on stage, Russia still has a long way to go to catch up to the competition — preferably with safer steps than the ones its robot took.
According to its official website, the robot, an acronym for the manufacturer’s laboratory, Artificial Intelligence Dynamic Organism Lab, can operate autonomously for six hours thanks to its 48 volt battery, moving at speeds up to 6 km/hwork both online and offline, and transport up to 10 kg.
AIdol is equipped with 19 servo motors that allow it to display more than a dozen basic emotions and hundreds of micro-expressions. It has silicone skin, to imitate human facial expressions, and allegedly, says the , it also uses Artificial Intelligence.
AIdol’s public debut took place on November 10, in Moscow, where it was presented as an example of a humanoid robot built mainly with components made in Russia.
And I’m into tema de Rocky, AIdol stumbled onto the stage, looking like an elderly man looking for a public bathroom. After wave shylythe robot advanced clumsily and ended up collapsing on the floor.
At that same moment, two employees dragged him off the stagewhile another desperately pulled back the stage curtain to hide the unfortunate humanoid — as if Putin himself was in the audience.
Most people I would consider this demonstration embarrassing for a semi-autonomous robot, supposedly capable of moving in spacetransport objects and communicate – even more so when Atlas, from Boston Dynamics, has been doing it for almost eight years.
However, Vladimir Vitukhinthe CEO of AIdol, , faced the episode with optimism, and described the incident as a “real-time training”.
“Successful mistakes turn into knowledge and failed errors in experience”, highlighted the CEO of the Dubai-based technology company, adding that the next version of the anthropomorphic robot will be better.
The company justified the drop with calibration issues and stressed that the robot is still in testing phase.
The Kremlin must not have been exactly satisfied with the media attention overall incident, especially when 77% of the robot’s components are Russian – a figure that the manufacturer wants to increase to 93%.
With all the sanctions imposed on the country, Russia has been betting on national technology, but the results have so far been not very encouraging. The development of Russian domestic robotics, in particular, stayed behind after Vladimir Putin launched his large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
O sector previously depended on foreign manufacturersbut everyone removed from the country when the war beganleading authorities to debate ways to boost progress in an increasingly relevant global sector, notes .
In 2023, only 2,100 robotic complexes in Russiacompared to 25,000 in Germany and 300,000 in Chinaaccording to a report cited by the British newspaper.
As sanctions affecting critical supply chainsthe brain drain of some of the best manufacturers after the large-scale hack, and structural problems like the low level of innovationall contributed to the strangulation of the sector.
In July, Vladimir Putin stated that the “implementation of robotics in Russia’s economy and industry is one of the most important areas”, but described its development as “woefully low so far”.
