Russia’s military almost ran over a journalist shooting a television segment about a one-ton robot called the Platforma-M. The footage was removed from the show, but it was mistakenly published online and quickly shared on social media sites.
The Platforma-M is a remote-controlled robot equipped with grenade launchers, Kalashnikov rifles, and sensors that allow it to operate even in the dead of night. Yet the robot’s controller (who isn’t showed in the footage circulating online) was unable to stop it from almost crushing Aleksey Egorov during a demonstration.
In the video, Egorov is speaking with a member of Russia’s military as they walk next to the Platforma-M on a beach. Egorov then walks in front of the robot as it approaches a sand dune, shouts “Stop!” while pushing against its front, and then rolls out of the way as it tumbles over. It looks just as dangerous as it sounds:
Egorov, his escort, and the Platforma-M were unharmed. But in the library of videos depicting man versus machine, this one comes the closest to showing a man lose his life for not taking a robot seriously.
Surprisingly, this isn’t even the weirdest robot news to come out of Russia this month: last week, Russian police arrested Promobot at a political rally in what appears to be the first time a robot has been arrested.
So one week there’s a criminal robot and the next footage leaks of a man almost being crushed by a military robot. That’s what the robot revolution looks like in Russia. Here in the United States, though, we just have a robot balancing on one leg in a controlled environment with no chance of crushing anyone.
