A SMALL German town has a yearly festival featuring the largest walking robot on Earth, an 11-ton fire-breathing dragon.
Furth im Wald in southeastern Germany hosts the annual Drachenstich, a reenactment of a dragon-slaying fable.
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The staging of the Drachenstich dates all the way back to 1590, when a rudimentary dragon on two wheels was built for the event.
Today, a 30-foot tall, 50-foot long robot prowls the street, expelling fire through its nose and mouth.
Stefan Ege, the town’s dragon operator, told video journalist Tom Scott that the dragon robot has “60 movable angles with the legs, with the neck”.
The dragon’s name is Tradinno, a portmanteau of “tradition” and “innovation”.
Tradinno was first built in 2010 and entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s largest walking robot in 2014.
Loads of sensors affixed to the dragon’s body and feet detect pressure to create realistic walking movements and keep the beast balanced.
The dragon has a 140-horsepower engine, but the most exciting piece under the scales could be the 80-liter tank of fake blood that spews from the dragon after being speared by the play’s hero.
Tourists and residents can interface with the dragon during guided tours before and after the festival.
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The history of walking robots is littered with funny fails and awkward stage demonstrations.
But recent developments have begun to push against the longstanding idea of “clumsy robots“.
Morti the robotic dog taught itself to gracefully walk in less than an hour using an artificial intelligence program.
A robotic arm was trained to recognize its position in three-dimensional space and can avoid obstacles and collisions.
Tradinno requires human operation via controller, but the dragon is a display of smooth movements being performed by a larger bot.
The massive dragon-bot does have a large, red emergency stop button attached to it in case it’s motion does go haywire.
