Chinese robot smashes into display booth, injuring guest at fair

A robot featured at a Chinese tech fair seemed to have gone rogue as it injured a visitor when it charged at a display booth.

The incident happened at the China Hi-Tech Fair, which is an annual event featuring 3,000 vendors that took place between Nov. 16 and 21 in Shenzhen.

A Nov. 18 online article by the U.K.-based Telegraph says the guerilla robot is known as Xiao Pang, which translates to Little Fatty or Little Chubby.

According to local reports, the robot barrelled into one of the booths, shattering glass and sending pieces flying into the air. One of the shards hit a visitor in the ankle, who had to be taken to a nearby hospital for stitches and has since been discharged.

As for Xiao Pang, its original intention was to connect with children between the ages of four and 12, while responding to questions by literally showing “emotions.” The robots feelings were animated by facial expressions displayed on a screen. At the time of the collision, the robot was said to be exhibiting a frowning face, as if it knew it had done something very wrong.

Rest easy — the robot’s violent act doesn’t mean this is the immediate rise of Artificial Intelligence. Rather, it appears to have happened as a result of human error. The person behind Xiao Pang’s controller simply pressed the “forward” button instead of “reverse.”

So it looks like it wasn’t really the robot’s fault, after all.