Humanoid robot takes a stand against engineer behaving aggressively

A viral video showing a robotics engineer violently yanking a humanoid robot by a chain around its neck has sparked widespread social media discussion about robot resilience and potential future uprisings. The footage demonstrates remarkable advances in robotic balance and stability, as the Unitree G1 robot maintains its footing despite aggressive physical disturbances designed to test its adaptive capabilities.

What you should know: The disturbing footage was originally shared by Tsinghua University PhD student Zhikai Zhang, who developed the humanoid motion tracker system called Any2Track in collaboration with Galbot, a Chinese robotics company.

• The video shows the robot stumbling but refusing to fall as it’s jerked around by a chain, while a separate clip shows the engineer kicking the robot’s torso.
• Despite the harsh treatment, the Unitree G1 bipedal robot maintains impressive balance and composure throughout the abuse.

How it works: Zhang and his team deployed a “two-stage reinforcement learning framework” to teach the robot how to adapt to various disturbances in real-time.

• The system “needs to operate stably in real-world scenarios against various dynamics disturbances, including terrains, external forces, and physical property changes for general practical use,” according to the project documentation.
• The AI learns to respond to unexpected forces like kicks or chain pulls, adjusting its balance and movement patterns on the fly.

In plain English: Think of it like teaching a person to ride a bike on different terrains while someone occasionally pushes them—the robot’s AI brain learns to automatically adjust its balance and movements to stay upright no matter what’s thrown at it.

The bigger picture: This isn’t an isolated incident of human-on-robot testing, as researchers increasingly push the physical limits of humanoid robots.

• A separate viral video from earlier this month showed scientists at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, similarly kickboxing a Unitree G1 humanoid robot.
• These demonstrations highlight how far robotic balance and resilience have advanced, with robots now capable of performing kung fu moves and boxing matches.

What they’re saying: Social media users have responded with a mix of humor and concern about the implications.

• “This guy is the first one to die in the robot uprising,” one Reddit user joked in response to the footage.
• The demonstrations have prompted broader discussions about humanity’s fate “in the case of a genuine robot uprising,” given how easily the robots shrug off physical attacks.