Bu Sunaidah Is the UAE Robot That Outgrew the Lab

There is a robot walking around the UAE, and he goes by Bu Sunaidah. In Gulf culture, this is the kunyah (nickname) traditionally given to a man named Rashid and the kind of name that gets shouted across a majlis and carries warmth and familiarity in a single syllable. An Emirati-branded humanoid robot, Bu Sunaidah walks through the country streets like it (or he) owns them.  Indeed, the humanoid itself is Unitree G1, the robot which took over the UAE social media last summer. The G1 spent months enjoying popularity: it made its first official meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in Union House during a demonstration at Dubai Future Labs; it jogged through streets near Emirates Tower while being videoed from a passing car; it accompanied fitness fanatics in their run at Mirdif City Centre at Mallathon, shaking their hands and waving them off during selfies with the robot. Over 100 such robots were acquired by UAE universities for research in human-robot interaction, and some even ended up at the Museum of the Future as a permanent installation and cultural landmark for future talks about human-machine coexistence.  And yet, Bu Sanidah represents something different from all that. It's the robot beyond hours, with character and that has been not only named, but given an Instagram account, and allowed to explore on its own.