Storyline: The Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in Pretoria, South Africa, has taken a significant step forward in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) research by introducing a humanoid robot onto its campus. Acquired from the Chinese company Unitree Robotics, the humanoid robot is programmable and serves as a research tool to advance robotics technology at the university. The robot mimics human movements and capabilities, demonstrating how machines are evolving to interact more seamlessly with humans. Beyond its mechanical capabilities, the robot is also equipped with AI-driven emotional recognition technology. Gustave Udahemuka, a postdoctoral research fellow at the AI Hub, explained how the robot can assess a person's emotions through facial expressions and vocal cues. The humanoid robot joins TUT's expanding collection of AI-driven platforms used for research. Another notable addition to the university's robotics ecosystem is Dexter, a four-legged robot dog. As the university continues to explore the full capabilities of these advanced robotic platforms, researchers remain committed to unlocking new ways to integrate AI and robotics into everyday life, improving efficiency, safety, and accessibility for all. Shotlist: Pretoria, South Africa - Recent: 1. Sign, logo of Tshwane University of Technology's AI Hub; 2. Various of humanoid robot acquired from Chinese company Unitree Robotics; 3. Amateur footage showing humanoid robot demonstrating capabilities; 4. Various of humanoid robot, researcher; 5. SOUNDBITE (English) Anish Kurien, acting director, AI Hub, Tshwane University of Technology (starting with shot 4/partially overlaid with shots 6-7/ending with shot 8): "One of the areas that we are quite keen is in collaborative robotics, and robotics play a big role in our environment where they are able to bring about assistance to humans. So that could be in the manufacturing environment where there's a big need for that, but also in the human assistive space. So with that in mind, our idea was to acquire certain robotic platforms. The latest platform we got from the same company is a humanoid. This is representing humans as close as possible in terms of its motion. It's a two-legged robot, a biped robot. And what it tries to do is, in motion form, mimic the motion of the human. But the idea is then to also bring it alongside the human to be able to interact with a human machine sort of context." [SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE] 6. Kurien, his colleague observing humanoid robot; 7. Amateur footage showing humanoid robot walking; [SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE] 8. Amateur footage showing humanoid robot waving hand; 9. Researcher adjusting posture of humanoid robot; 10. SOUNDBITE (English) Gustave Udahemuka, postdoctoral research fellow, AI Hub, Tshwane University of Technology (ending with shot 11): "The emotion we do extract from a person, for example if a person is happy or angry or even stressed, and we do combine those modalities in order to get the right emotion of a person. For example, what we did is that we did extract the facial expression of a person and also the voice of a person." 11. Various of humanoid robot; 12. Robot dog demonstrating capabilities; 13. SOUNDBITE (English) Anish Kurien, acting director, AI Hub, Tshwane University of Technology (starting with shot 12/partially overlaid with shot 14): "Other platforms that we have acquired are a four-legged robot platform, a robot dog. We call him Dexter, it even has a name. And the idea was to use the motion of the robot in assistive kind of format where it comes alongside the human. And we all know in certain situations you have certain environments that are of risk. So this particular device is used around the world for firefighting [and] for example in mines." [SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE] 14. Various of robot dogs demonstrating capabilities; [SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE] 15. Robot dogs demonstrating capabilities. [Restrictions : No access Chinese mainland]