back to article Russian railways in robot repairman revue

Russia's railway industry has thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the world, exhibiting a team of dwarvish droids which can sing and dance on tables. Railways chiefs say that the machines will be used for tricky repair work in confined spaces. The miniature mechanoid mechanics were recently exhibited on Russian TV, and - …

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  1. cor
    Thumb Up

    How fitting...

    .. that the name "robot" is from the Russian word for work/worker.

    I learnt it when posted there in the early 90's, because everything was "njet robot".

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    I for one

    welcome our new dancing droid overlords

    Merry Xmas everyone ! Enjoy it, it's probably our last as free men.

  3. Dom McIntyre
    Coat

    Czech actually

    though the root of the word is the same

    First used in a play by Karel Capek, coined by his brother

    http://jerz.setonhill.edu/resources/RUR/

  4. R.E.H.

    They call those singing, dancing robots?

    The kids in that video have not seen a REAL singing, dancing robot.

    A much better model:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X9Zuf9kPKU

    A better song, too.

  5. Tawakalna
    Boffin

    def Czech actually..

    from "R.U.R" (Rossum's Universal Robots) made in the '20s, and also made famous by the Czech socialist-realist cartoon "Heroic Worker Mouse Robotnik v Evil Capitalist Cat Robotnik"

  6. Jason
    Happy

    Nothing new here...

    This vid was put a year ago, take a look see, well funny!

    http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/libido/video/x11yc7_robot-libido_fun

    Merry Christmas all, time to get ratted XD

  7. Shadowslayer
    Pirate

    Japans monopoly

    On robots isn't as tight as you may think. Figures the Russians would come up with something practical instead of just tech demonstrators that the japanese love so much. Whats next Putins own private battalion of personal Killbots at his command :-) Luddites beware!

  8. Ishkandar
    Joke

    Watch it, guys...

    ...tis but a small step to replace those "worker" arms with the latest model AK variant !! And since it will not tire, it can carry vast amounts of ammo, too. Certainly more than Rambo can wrap around he undoubtedly manly chest !!

    Reindeer kebab, anyone ??

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    What a waste

    I think Russia is the last country that needs a robotic repair force. Even given the recent boom the salary of a highly qualified train engineer would be around $1000 a month, so Russian Railways can afford to send a team of 10 under qualifed railway engineers to do the kind of work one of these robots might accomplish. The only role that I see they could be useful for would be testing/repairing track in remote areas, however given the size of these guys legs they may take a while to trudge from Moscow to Siberia.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    One might say...

    These aren't the droids you're looking for

  11. This post has been deleted by its author

  12. Haku

    Keepon

    The best dancing robot I've seen this year is Keepon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPdP1jBfxzo

    Unfortunately it doesn't have any taste in music and will dance to anything: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlEGDR_zBfk

  13. Mark SPLINTER
    Linux

    @cor: memory problems

    You mean "nirabotayet". Nice try though. ;)

  14. Daniel B.
    Joke

    So...

    Because somebody had to say it ...

    In Soviet Russia, Robots Repair YOU!!!!

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