A man shoved a robot in a shop and it kicked him back, here’s why it may have done that

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A man shoved a robot in a shop and it kicked him back, here’s why it may have done that

A humanoid sales assistant in an electronics store squared up and threw kicks at a customer who shoved it, and the clip has been read everywhere as a robot fighting back. The likelier explanation is duller and more useful: humanoids recover from a push by stepping into it, so a machine catching its balance walks straight at the person who pushed it, and some models also ship with combat demo routines that can be triggered.

Here’s a humanoid who apparently started kicking a customer in Russia, just because they pushed it a little and the video went viral.

https://twitter.com/REK/status/2095310838748127720/video/1?s=46

Just a day later, another video emerged of a humanoid pushing and kicking several people at a robotics company REK.

So why do these machines hit back?

The footage cannot tell us what was happening inside the robot’s software

Well, at least for REK, the company confirmed that their robot was remotely operated.

For the one in Russia, a humanoid stays upright with a balance controller that never stops running. Small nudge, it leans at the ankles. Bigger one, it swings its hips and arms. Push it hard enough and it has to take a step.

It steps in the direction of the push, because that is how you get your feet back under your falling weight.

To a human watching from the outside, however, a leg suddenly coming forward can look suspiciously like a kick.

Robots like Unitree’s G1 ship with combat routines built in, and China ran a robot kickboxing tournament last year. You are probably watching a demo mode that fired.

Either way, there is no anger in there.

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