Gizmos & Gadgets: Is Russia’s Military Seriously Considering Deploying Avatar-like Bipedal Walking Robots?

August 25, 2018 – Kalashnikov is one of the more well-known names in Soviet and Russian military circles. The company builds much of the Russian military’s rifles including the AK-47, an assault rifle that is prominently displayed anytime the world of film trots out its next edition of war, violence and general mayhem. Kalashnikov produces 95% of all small arms in Russia today and ships its weapons to more than 27 countries around the world, not including illegal shipments to non-state actors. Today there are more than 75 million AK-47s in the hands of military and non-military users around the planet.

Little known in the West, Kalashnikov builds more than guns. In the latest display of Russian military prowess at the Army 2018 fair held at Patriot Park, Moscow, the company displayed a range of new assault rifle models, armored utility vehicles, and a bipedal walker that looks like it was designed for a Hollywood science fiction adventure.

Called Igorek, this “Avatar-style” monstrosity has to be a joke or a prop to get the media’s attention. The impracticality of its design makes it more than unlikely that it will ever appear on a battlefield.

In the two images below you can compare Igorek to the bipedal walker that appears in the movie “Avatar.”

Surprisingly, a number of iterations of bipedal human-controlled robotic walkers show up when you type the term “military bipedal walker” into a Google search. Robot designers seem to get a kick out of building prototypes. Watch this YouTube video of Method-01, a Korean invention that supposedly will appear one day on future battlefields.

But Igorek, standing 4 meters (13 feet) tall has been described in Popular Mechanics as a “giant egg on legs.” Igorek’s features include:

• a multiperson cockpit for human operators
• two pincered, three-fingered grasping arms
• two legs articulated to bend in reverse fashion from the ones we humans have (in other words more like a raptor dinosaur)

In Popular Mechanics reveal of the Kalashnikov’s Igorek it notes that combat walkers are entirely impractical on battlefields. Besides the leg vulnerability issue, these walkers require balancing systems to keep the cockpit from constantly rocking. And then there is the height issue. On a battlefield, a weapon with such a high profile would be an easy target.