After marathons and combats, humanoid robots already have their next challenge: climbing Everest

we have seen robots doing kickboxing, skiing, dancing with astonishing precision and have even participated in their own robotic olympics. The new feat starring a humanoid robot has been to become a mountaineer. He has already climbed to the top of the Chimborazo volcano in Chile, 6,263 meters high, and already has his next goal: Everest.

The climbing robot. The robot in question is a Unitree G1 and is part of the ‘Pemba’ initiativeled by a French engineer named Pablo Berlanga. The robot reached the top of the Chimborazo volcano on June 5 and already has its next climbs scheduled; In June he will climb Mauna Kea in Hawaii and in October he will summit Everest, the highest mountain in the world.

Yes, but. Equipped with special boots and a jacket that protects it from extreme conditions, the Unitree G1 managed to complete a journey of about 16 hours and reach the summit at more than 6,200 meters of altitude. However, as they say in Futurismhe didn’t do it all by himself. The robot is not capable of climbing slopes of more than 30% inclination, so it had to be transported on those sections.

A noble goal. Most shows with robots are just that, shows. However, in this case there is a reason beyond that. This engineer says that the idea of ​​taking a humanoid robot to the highest mountains on the planet came from his experience in conservation projects in remote jungles such as the Amazon or the Congo. In these natural parks, being able to record and broadcast live is not only important to investigate and protect the environment, it also represents an important source of income.

A camera with legs. Berlanga built cameras that connected to Starlink and were capable of live streaming. The problem is that since they are fixed, their field of vision is limited and the fauna is constantly moving, so I had to place many cameras. From here the idea of ​​”putting legs on them” was born. Obviously, the robot does not need to be able to climb Everest to do this work, but it is the way to publicize this initiative and obtain support to make it a reality. He has created a “tokenization” project in order to finance the project.

Image | Pablo Berlanga in X, edited

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