[HN Gopher] IRonCub: A Humanoid Robot Designed to Fly Like Iron Man
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IRonCub: A Humanoid Robot Designed to Fly Like Iron Man
Author : rbanffy
Score : 47 points
Date : 2025-10-02 18:54 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
| voidUpdate wrote:
| I really feel like people need to stop trying to make these sorts
| of robots look so "human-like". The effect of a mouthless bald
| doll head strapped on top of an iron man robot isn't exactly
| comforting, to me anyway. It starts to hit the uncanny valley a
| bit
| sausajez wrote:
| I feel like the funny part is that there are so many "robot"
| mask designs in pop culture that would look 1000x more
| comforting than a slightly psychotic looking robotic doll
| voidUpdate wrote:
| That's exactly my idea. I would feel far more comforted being
| rescued by something like Chappie or The Iron Legion than
| something like the Sophia robot or this thing. Human-inspired
| over human imitation
| zhainya wrote:
| Everything about this design feels wrong. Like they went out
| of their way to make it unappealing.
| ahoka wrote:
| This looks like it was put together by Sid in his room.
| freedomben wrote:
| That was exactly what I thought of too when I saw it, hahaha.
| If it wasn't terrifying enough already...
| KineticLensman wrote:
| A similar type of robot is key to the plot of the superbly
| quirky film 'Brian and Charles' [0] in which a nutty inventor
| build a robot that looks exactly a weird old-man's head stuck
| on top of a washing-machine shaped body.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_and_Charles
| wsintra2022 wrote:
| Under rated British comedy gold right there, layers and
| layers especially the illuminati references
| eig wrote:
| Presumably they want to eventually put a human inside it, in
| which case having a humanoid robot to work off of wouldn't
| change the aero calculations and designs too much. The article
| talks about specific design considerations to avoid the exhaust
| gases.
| voidUpdate wrote:
| Gravity Industries already has that sorted
| https://gravity.co/ . I was almost expecting this robot to
| just be a humanoid robot with one of those suits on
| legacynl wrote:
| Looking at the 'hands' of this robot, it looks to be
| exactly that.
| bArray wrote:
| > Presumably they want to eventually put a human inside it
| [..]
|
| I'm imagining a team just putting the organs of a human into
| the robot to save on space. Basically a brain plus whatever
| is absolutely necessary to run the brain.
| stavros wrote:
| Wasn't that Robocop 3?
| konart wrote:
| Maybe the wanted to create an
| https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Boy
| stronglikedan wrote:
| I would look at that and think "doll". Others look at it and
| think "human". People are weird.
| sgt wrote:
| I think they could make it a bit more professional looking
| like: https://imgur.com/a/vXED98B Like a friendly yet stern
| Butler of the Skies.
| Klaster_1 wrote:
| Next step: add an RTG power source and make it look like a boy.
| MSFT_Edging wrote:
| Can we please be honest with ourselves for a second and call out
| the ridiculousness of the "find a lost hiker" and "disaster
| relief" excuses used by kill-bot companies?
|
| Who is this robot going to save with glowing hot turbine engines
| on it's fore-arms.
|
| This is kill-bot tech put on the iCub to get articles in
| circulation.
| busterarm wrote:
| If you truly wanted to do this, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has
| already proven that you can drop bombs via drones with pinpoint
| accuracy for dirt cheap.
|
| If somebody's going to work on something a million times more
| the cost and a similar fractional multiple of the
| effectiveness, maybe you can take them at face value that
| they're not building a murderbot (at least not by design).
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| > at face value
|
| Freaky baby face value.
| fragmede wrote:
| It's dual use technology. It can and will be used to find lost
| hikers, it's just that it can also be used for nefarious
| purposes.
| trenchpilgrim wrote:
| "disaster response" is code for "we built the robot before
| realizing we need to justify it to others" https://xkcd.com/2128
| josefresco wrote:
| Came here to say this. It appears 14 words into the article! I
| laughed out loud and immediately stopped reading. Write an
| article when their robot has "saved" at least one living thing
| and I'll pay attention. Until then it's just vapor. In the
| meantime I'll wear my downvotes with pride.
| arnaudsm wrote:
| Why would you need bipedism for a flying object ? Wouldn't a
| quadripod + quadcopter setup would be much more stable and
| cheaper ?
| voidUpdate wrote:
| It's being advertised as being used for generic disaster
| recovery, where it's beneficial to be human-shaped (human
| infrastructure is designed for humans, so its easier to
| interface with it if the robot is human-shaped too), so they
| just strapped some jets on it to take it to the disaster zone
| itself
| input_sh wrote:
| That's just something robot manufacturers say to justify
| building their expensive toys, I promise you it'll never be
| used for that purpose.
|
| See the XKCD someone has already posted below.
| voidUpdate wrote:
| Yeah I know, but that's what they're advertising it as
| meindnoch wrote:
| >It's being advertised as being used for generic disaster
| recovery, where it's beneficial to be human-shaped (human
| infrastructure is designed for humans, so its easier to
| interface with it if the robot is human-shaped too)
|
| Ummmm, disaster recovery is hard precisely because the
| infrastructure (e.g. a collapsed building) ceased to be
| suitable for humans.
| cdfsdsadsa wrote:
| That's not the point of this robot.
|
| I suppose the original iCub research robot is running out of
| grants it can milk, so they strapped some jet engines to it.
| pettycashstash2 wrote:
| Reminds me so much of Mega Man on NES.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxyLui5LdCc
| p0w3n3d wrote:
| Flying is usually the easiest part of "flying like Iron Man"
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| Given that the video showed ~1 second of "flying", I don't even
| know if that's the case.
| exe34 wrote:
| "uh.... search and rescue."
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| a humanoid robot designed to fly like a billionaire arms dealer
| wheybags wrote:
| https://gravity.co/ is a similar project that seems to be much
| more advanced, and also attaches to a real human body, rather
| than a nightmare doll head
| switchbak wrote:
| Man, the carnage that will inevitably happen when someone
| pushes this thing too far. I suppose that's true of many things
| (motorcycles), but this just terrifies me.
| busterarm wrote:
| It's also incredibly difficult to learn to use and to operate.
| The whole point of putting a robot in the cockpit is that it
| won't make mistakes humans will and thus be more fuel efficient
| (e.g., longer operation times).
|
| At least if you can keep the weight down.
| jandrese wrote:
| > "is that the exhaust gas from the turbines is at 800 degC and
| almost supersonic speed.
|
| MY SHOES ARE ON FIRE!
|
| They kinda handwaved the whole "wash the disaster area in
| superheated jet exhaust before doing your S&R" problem.
| insane_dreamer wrote:
| It seems that flying a robot to a disaster response area is the
| easy part. The question is whether it'll be able to do anything
| truly useful there.
| astroflection wrote:
| Obviously being able to fly a bipedal kill bot into a "war zone"
| and then use it for door-to-door fighting is something certain
| large organizations are looking for. The stupid baby mask is just
| to distract critics of kill bot tech.
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(page generated 2025-10-06 23:01 UTC)