Running over irregular terrain, jumping over obstacles and entering dangerous areas, full of smoke, heat and high electrical voltage, this type of extreme work was reserved for highly trained human teams, but the Chinese company Deep Robotics presented the DR02, a highly mobile robot designed to act in hostile industrial environments, even in real combat scenarios.

The demonstrations released by the company show a robot capable of running on regular grass, climbing stone steps and carrying out inspections on high-voltage electrical installations. The goal of Deep Robotics is to take humanoids to places where the risk to humans is simply too high. Unlike prototypes created for controlled environments, DR02 was designed to face the unpredictable conditions of the real world.

At 1.75 cm high, it has IP66 certification, offering protection against dust and intense jets of water. The machine was also developed to operate in extreme temperatures, varying from negative 20º to positive 55º. Its mechatronic actuators received important updates, expanding load capacity and improving travel speed, essential features for transporting emergency equipment in critical situations, but the DR02 exception is also part of a gigantic financial dispute.

Recently, the Shanghai stock exchange approved Deep Robotics' application to open capital on the Star market and an operation that can raise about US$367 million. The money will be allocated mainly to the development of built-in artificial intelligence and the construction of a large-scale production line. DR02 shows that humanoids are already beginning to gain the physical strength necessary to act in scenarios where human presence is extremely risky. But the next frontier will be even more complex, transforming machines with built-in capabilities capable of running and jumping into safe synthetic beings to be next to humanity without harming us, even by accident.