They may have come down in price substantially, but humanoid robots are far from hitting shelves at your local Toys-R-Us.
And for good reason, as a recent video that went viral on social media perfectly demonstrates. What appears to be a Unitree G1 humanoid robot wearing a blue clown wig can be seen confidently executing a roundhouse kick — squarely in the stomach of a young child in the audience, causing the kid to double over in pain.
Worst of all, the child did absolutely nothing wrong, and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
While you’d be forgiven for stifling a dark laugh given the ridiculousness of the situation, the incident highlights lingering pain points when it comes to robot safety. As it turns out, powerful robots that can run up walls, perform highly complex choreographies, and deftly wield weapons aren’t exactly a perfect fit for a young child’s birthday party, even when they’re being remotely controlled.
According to the Chinese newspaper Shanghai Daily, the incident occurred in Xinjiang, a northwest region of China. Fortunately, the paper reported, child wasn’t seriously injured.
Netizens were taken aback by the violence on display, joking about an imminent robot uprising.
“So it begins…” one Reddit user wrote ominously.
“Already breaking the first law,” another user argued, referring to the first of “I, Robot” author Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, which states that a “robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”
It’s far from the first time we’ve seen humans get injuried by a humanoid robot. Earlier this year, another Unitree G1 robot in China lost balance while performing in front of a crowd. After it hit the ground, it thrashed its limbs, hitting a man in the nose and causing it to bleed.
A lawsuit a former engineer at the humanoid robotics firm Figure AI filed in federal court in California last year also alleged that the robots “were powerful enough to fracture a human skull,” and therefore presented a major threat to safety.
While Unitree’s G1 humanoid robot is shorter and lighter than Figure’s’s robots, it can still pack a punch. It weighs roughly 70 pounds and its joints can produce over 100 Newton meters of torque, meaning just one of them can easily lift over 26 pounds.
Put simply, getting a metal foot whipped into your mid-region is bound to hurt.
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