AIDOL is apparently Russia’s first domestically produced AI-powered humanoid robot … but hopefully it won’t be the last.
Making its debut at a special event in Moscow this week, AIDOL tottered onto a stage to the Rocky theme. And then promptly fell over.
Truth be told, AIDOL didn’t look too steady from the moment that it appeared. The AI-powered robot was all over the place. It looked like it’d been on the bottle. After a few wobbly steps, it attempted to wave at the audience. But seconds later, its legs gave way, causing it to crash to the floor.
Assistants ran onto the stage and tried to hold a sheet over AIDOL in an apparent bid to preserve its dignity, but even that went wrong as the sheet became tangled and ended up covering nothing. Instead, we got to see AIDOL being unceremoniously dragged off the stage, presumably back to the workshop (or possibly the nearest garbage can).
The company behind AIDOL, also called AIDOL, remained positive following the unfortunate hiccup.
Its CEO, Vladimir Vitukhin, told the Russian state news agency Tass that AIDOL was still at a learning stage, adding, “I hope this mistake will turn into an experience.”
According to the company’s website, AIDOL features advanced dialogue generation, emotion recognition, and highly expressive facial capabilities with 19 servo motors enabling at least 12 basic emotions and hundreds of micro-expressions. Yes, it seems like the team has concentrated on its face at the expense of its legs.
AIDOL is designed to operate fully offline with on-device voice processing, and can run autonomously for up to six hours on a 48-volt battery. And on a good day, it can apparently walk at speeds of up to 3.7 mph (6 kph).
Looking ahead (well ahead), the robot is intended for positions in manufacturing, logistics, banks, airports, and other public spaces, though let’s hope there’s a chair involved.
With rival firms like Figure, Xpeng, Unitree, and Boston Dynamics clearly well ahead in the humanoid robotics space, it’s uncertain whether AIDOL will ever be able to catch up.
We look forward to seeing version 2.
