Vitukhin said the robot had been tested in a variety of conditions before the debut – “on stones, carpet, laminate, expanded clay and slippery floors”, according to the Moscow Times.
He believed the robot’s fall was probably the result of a voltage fluctuation and other environmental factors, including the lighting, but added: “Surely everyone felt sorry for it, and that’s one of its functions – to evoke sympathy,” the newspaper added.
AIDOL is the flagship project of Russia’s New Technological Coalition, a consortium of robotics companies and technical universities working to develop anthropomorphic robots. Alexey Yuzhakov, head of the coalition and founder of robotics company Promobot, told Russian business newspaper Vedomosti that he hopes to attract millions of dollars in investments – from both Russian and foreign private investors and funds – for future developments.
He told the Russian state news agency Tass that the autonomous robot learns from the “consequences of its own action” and will “continue to improve”.
Once seen as a sci-fi fantasy, similar to flying cars, humanoid robots are now a reality, with major tech corporations investing big time.
Elon Musk’s Tesla is building its own humanoid robot called Optimus and said the robots will be “the biggest product ever in history,” while Meta and Google are working on integrating their own AI technology and research with humanoid robots, the Washington Post previously reported. According to Morgan Stanley analysts, the United States is predicted to have 78 million humanoid robots at work by 2050.
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