Humanoid Robot Goes on Random Factory Rampage

A bipedal robot made by Unitree has gone off the rails at the company's testing facility in Shenzhen, China, according to a video making the rounds on social media. The incident—which closely follows another eerie Unitree humanoid malfunction—has some people skeptical of the robotics industry's latest push to bring humanoids into everyday scenarios.

In the video below, two workers chat at a computer terminal to the right of an H1 robot, which is suspended on a hook. The robot's arms begin to move, catching the attention of one worker, who appears to have some sort of remote or wire in his hand. The worker lifts the device in what looks like an attempt to stop the robot's movements—and then the whole bot goes berserk. Its arms flail, its legs lunge, and the torso twists wildly, propelling the unit forward until it threatens to ...