this is the world's first ever humanoid robot that will summit Mt. Everest
it's named Pemba, and two days ago it reached the top of Chimborazo, a 20,000-foot peak in Ecuador, completely on its own (no remote or operator).
and the robot itself is nothing special. Pemba is a Unitree G1, the same ~$14k robot anyone can buy online right now.
the guy behind it, Pablo Berlanga, is doing this to send robots into the places that kill people.
think about how you'd check on a melting glacier or a deadly crevasse out in the middle of nowhere today.
you either send a person who might not come back, or you skip it and learn nothing.
so Berlanga wants a robot that walks in on its own, carries a few pounds of gear, and brings back footage from places no human can safely reach.
i think eventually they'll even be used for robot rescue missions to reach people stranded in disasters and dangerous situations
from here, the plan for Pemba is Mauna Kea in Hawaii, then Everest.
Everest is the tricky one.
the team wanted to send Pemba up this spring to start hauling trash off the mountain and tracking its glaciers (something Nepal genuinely needs help with)
but the Nepalese government told them to wait.
there's no law in Nepal for a climber that isn't human, so the rules have to get written before a robot can set foot on the mountain.
kind of incredible that the machine is ready for Everest a full year before anyone's decided whether it's allowed to be up there