A new video shows the bizarre matchup taking place inside an actual fighting cage, where a human is fighting a humanoid robot.
The 44-second clip shows internet personality, Frankie LaPenna, facing a roughly six-foot humanoid robot in an octagonal cage. The event was organised by San Francisco-based robotics company REK, which bills the encounter as the first human-versus-humanoid robot fight.
The footage shows LaPenna, wearing protective padding, moving towards the humanoid and throwing punches while the robot responds with a series of kicks and strikes before apparently sending him across the cage with a final kick.
The machine has been given a distinctly Terminator-style appearance for the event, including a menacing head that makes the scene look considerably more cinematic than a conventional robotics demonstration.
The robot is an EngineAI T800, a full-size humanoid platform developed by Chinese robotics company, EngineAI, according to reporting on the event. The fight took place in San Francisco on September 18. REK described the event as its first “Human VS Terminator robot fight,” and said more footage would be released.
But there is an important catch. The robot wasn’t deciding how to fight on its own. This isn’t an AI fighting on its own. The T800 was remotely controlled by a human operator. That makes the spectacle less about an artificial intelligence learning mixed martial arts and more about the physical capabilities of a humanoid robot being demonstrated through teleoperation.
That distinction is important as humanoid robots become increasingly capable of balancing, walking, and manipulating objects. A remotely operated machine can perform movements that would otherwise require considerably more sophisticated autonomous control.
It also means the event does not demonstrate that a humanoid robot can independently identify an opponent, select a fighting technique, and execute it in real time. Instead, it demonstrates something more basic but still striking: a human-controlled humanoid can move around a confined space and deliver physical strikes against a human opponent.
