Getting to Know the Oli Humanoid Robot (by Dancing)

In an empty hotel suite, I got an exclusive hands-on demo of Oli, a 5-foot-5 humanoid robot from LimX Dynamics that’s making its US debut. It came pre-loaded with approximately a dozen dance numbers (maybe more), and I asked to see all of them. I also tried my best to keep up.

In a world where a lot of companies are seeking autonomy, and videos of dancing robots have circulated on the internet for years, a lot of folks may not be impressed by a remote-controlled dancing robot demo.

However, Oli, like most robots, isn’t designed to be autonomous out of the box. The EDU version I tried 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 around using a remote control and seeing its range of movement through dance 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 bipedal robot, Tron 1. It comes with three sets of “feet”: flat feet, pointed feet and wheels. On the latter, it’s blisteringly fast, both in a straight line and when spinning in circles.

It’s also pretty robust. I kicked it over several times, and while one small piece of plastic broke off, it got back up every time.

Both robots from LimX Dynamics are designed to be customizable for different use cases. On Oli, its head and hands can be swapped. On Tron 1, different sensor packages and robot arms can be added to the top to unlock new capabilities.

Both robots are available now, with the Tron 1 EDU version starting at $20,000, and the Oli EDU model starting at $60,000.

To watch my dance battle with Oli and our hands-on demo with the Tron 1, check out the videos in this article.