Video of the Week: Unitree H2 Destiny

In reassuring robot news this week, behold Unitree H2 'Destiny'! It does some lovely ballet-type moves, before rounding it all off with a roundhouse kick at human head height, then a gut-punch for good measure.

I often (far, far too often) watch these videos out of China and admire the subtle - and not so subtle - psyops work that they're clearly delivering. Aww, it's walking up and down like on a catwalk with some pretty funky threads. Oh look, now it's spinning round really fast and kicking its legs out in a way that will cause some serious pain were you to be in the way.

Gee, now it's wearing a fluffy hat and - oh! - now it's knee comes up to throat height quite vigorously!

I'd say we're a good five years away from these being mass-produced, perhaps ten from them being so ubiquitous that your mum's got one. But we're certainly being forced to confront the big questions around humanoids - how do we make sure that they're safe?

And who wants to see a robot doing ballet anyway?