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In an empty hotel suite, I got an exclusive hands-on view of Oli, a 5-foot-5 robot from LimX Dynamics that is making its U.S. debut. It came pre-loaded with about a dozen dance songs (maybe more), and I asked to see them all. I also did my best to keep up.
In a world where many companies are striving for autonomy, and videos of dancing robots have been circulating online for years, many people may not be impressed by a remote-controlled dancing robot demonstration.
LimX Dynamics’ Oli makes its US debut.
However, Oli, like most robots, was not designed to be autonomous independently of the box. The version of EDU I piloted is aimed at developers, universities and research teams who will work with these robots to program new capabilities, some of which may be autonomous.
With that in mind, walking a robot with a remote control and seeing its range of motion through dancing is an effective (and non-threatening) way to test what it can do.
It’s also a lot of fun.
Speaking of fun, I also got to try LimX Dynamics’ much shorter robot, the Tron 1. It comes with three sets of “feet”: flat feet, spiked feet, and wheels. Finally, it is very fast, both in a straight line and when turning in circles.
The front of the Tron 1 bipedal robot from LimX Dynamics.
It’s also very powerful. I kicked it a few times, and while a small piece of plastic broke off, it came back up every time.
Both LimX Dynamics robots are designed to be customizable for different use cases. In Oli, his head and hands can be swapped. In Tron 1, different sensor packages and robotic arms can be added to the top to unlock new abilities.
Both robots are available now, with the Tron 1 EDU version starting at US$20,000, and the Oli EDU model starting at US$60,000.
To see my dance battle with Oli and our hands-on demonstration with Tron 1, watch the videos in this article.