Advanced Russian robot turns out to just be a man in a suit

Jake Stones Read more December 12, 2018

A robot on display and doing performances at a tech forum in Russia, has been discovered to be a human in a robot suit after people began to examine pictures and video footage.

Presenting itself at the Proyektoria technology forum in Russia, the android, named Boris, appeared to be a technological marvel. It was able to converse, move, and even dance – albeit a little badly. In fact, Boris’ behaviours were startlingly like those of a real person.

Unsurprisingly, then, it turns out that Boris actually was a real person dressed up as a robot.

The ruse was up when the bot began to boogie. Bloggers began examining pictures and video footage of the human-like android/person dancing and found some abnormalities.

The bloggers noticed that the robot’s dancing made an array of unnecessary movements and that there was a distinct lack of external sensors. These facts, combined with the shape of the robot being pretty fitting for an actual person, left little to the imagination. Finally, a picture emerged showing a person’s neck creeping through the costume.

Unfortunately, a government-funded Russian news channel wasn’t as attentive, running a story before the jig was up. The news channel, Russia-24, praised Boris’ abilities – including his dancing. According to The Guardian, shortly after Boris was discovered to have completely bridged the gap between human and robot, Russia-24 took the video down from its YouTube channel. The video was returned later in the afternoon.

The forum’s website claims that they’d never attempted to pass the robot off as real. One thing’s for sure, if you see an army of Russian robots coming, you might as well try to kick one in the shin before running away.