A HYBRID blimp-humanoid robot is seen walking around a tech fair in California in a creepy new video.
Dubbed BALLU, the robot was created by Dennis Hong, director of the Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory at UCLA.
2
2
Hong recorded the 1-minute-23-second long video of BALLU at the 2022 Avatar XPRIZE event in California.
The event, held in Long Beach, was XPRIZE’s first public testing since the Ansari XPRIZE in 2004.
In the video, BALLU, who reportedly cannot fall down, could be seen charming guests as it prances around the event.
Similarly, social media users were also delighted by the bot, sharing compliments on Twitter and YouTube.
“I would buy one of these. What a wonderfully happy looking robot!” one user said on Twitter.
“I saw many robots, and I have to say that I admire how neat this one is. I love the simplicity (in a good creative way),” a second user added.
“My favorite robot at the @xprize Avatar finals,” a third person remarked.
“How whimsical,” a fourth person on Twitter exclaimed.
Most read in Tech
BALLU
BALLU is a bipedal robot, whose name stands for Buoyancy Assisted Lightweight Legged Unit.
Featuring humanoid elements but made with a body made of helium balloons and a pair of thin artificial legs, the bot is considered a hybrid.
Hong told Storyful that BALLU is low cost, lightweight, and safe – however, its weight also make it not suitable for outdoor use because it could get carried away by wind.
The robot “can literally walk on water and walk on a tight rope,” Hong added.
In 2016, Hong revealed that the conception of BALLU stemmed from the question: “What if we could change the direction of gravity?”
“To get creative ideas, sometimes we ask ourselves crazy, ridiculous questions,” Hong told Spectrum.
BALLU can do things like climb or jump over very tall structures, but it cannot carry out difficult or even everyday tasks like, let’s say, Tesla’s bot.
