Russia's First AI-Powered Robot Faceplanted During Its Public Reveal

With the emergence of several walking robots lately, it makes sense that we'd see an acceleration in robotics worldwide. For example, there's Xpeng's humanoid robot with synthetic skin, or the 1X Neo humanoid robot that's already up for pre-order. It's a robot race to see who can come up with the most advanced tech. When they eventually debut for the public, sometimes they have problems while other times they work well. It was the former with Russia's first humanoid robot, which fell right on its face during a Moscow technology event. Walking out to the theme song from "Rocky," rather awkwardly to begin with, it faceplanted, prompting the nearby crew to carry it off stage and conceal it from view.

Dubbed AIdol, the human-like, faceplanting robot has been developed by Vladimir Vitukhin and a team from the robotics firm Idol. It's the nation's first AI-driven humanoid robot, and like others unveiled, it's meant to mimic the movements of the human body to some degree, with realistic motion and gestures. On its first walk it looked more like it was constipated, before malfunctioning. But the fall doesn't necessarily mean the robot is problem-laden. Experts say it shows how challenging it is to get human-like balance systems correct in early models. Vitukhin also seemed to be taking the situation in stride, commenting that "A good mistake turns into knowledge, and a bad mistake turns into experience."

In the video of the event, shared online, you can see the robot walk out, fall, and get carried off stage. The engineers immediately removed it to check its sensors and internal stabilizers, critical components for helping it walk and balance. While it is a mishap, and these things do happen, Idol's team is already at work fine-tuning the AIdol's robotic control systems so the next public demonstration will go more smoothly. The team said the fall was due to calibration issues and the built-in camera's sensitivity being disturbed by the local lighting.

Russia presented its human-like AI robot. It fell down as it walked onto the stage. pic.twitter.com/YAk7w2SsWV

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) November 11, 2025

After some care, the robot was brought back onto the stage and remained upright during a second demonstration, with a little assistance. It also doesn't appear to have been damaged in the fall, which is always a plus. 

AIdol's core applications are threefold: To walk, manipulate objects, and communicate with people. Walking and balance come first, and AIdol is still in testing accordingly. By comparison, humanoid robots from Neura will also focus on three tasks, in different categories, including dirty, dull, or dangerous jobs. Meanwhile, Unitree's G1 Humanoid Robot can stand up from seemingly impossible positions. They don't all fall down and stay down, which could be bad news for the robot apocalypse. There's no apocalypse, yet. That's sarcasm.