The robot in the boxing video is Nadia, a humanoid research platform developed by IHMC Robotics with Boardwalk Robotics. A human operator wearing VR goggles controls its movements through a tether. The clip shows a robot striking training pads and moving to evade them—not an autonomous machine deciding to box.
What happens in the video?
The footage, reported by Futurism on December 2, 2023, shows Nadia punching pads worn by a human participant and performing evasive movements. It is edited like a training montage and set to music from Mortal Kombat, which makes the exchange look more like a fight than a robotics demonstration.
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An engineer nearby wears VR goggles. The operator’s controller movements are transmitted to Nadia through a tether, so the robot’s actions are human-directed. The video does not show Nadia independently choosing targets, recognizing an opponent, or making combat decisions.
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Nadia is a humanoid research platform developed by IHMC Robotics, part of the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition, with Boardwalk Robotics and other collaborators. IHMC describes it as a legacy platform and says its name references gymnast Nadia Comăneci. Its purpose was to help researchers study mobility, manipulation, behavior, perception, and teleoperation—not to make a commercial fighting robot. IHMC’s humanoid-design page describes the platform and its hardware.
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Why Nadia can make such broad movements
IHMC lists 29 joints, which it said gave Nadia one of the highest ranges of motion among humanoid robots when it was built. Its actuation combines electric and hydraulic systems, including Moog Integrated Smart Actuators, custom electric actuators, and commercial arm actuators. That combination supports the range of body movement seen in the clip, while the VR interface lets an operator direct it.
The robot’s movement may look fluid, but that does not mean it is acting on its own. The low-latency teleoperation system is designed to let an operator control challenging manipulation tasks directly. The boxing demonstration is therefore evidence of a human-controlled system responding through an interface, not proof of autonomous boxing ability.
Rank #2
- Build two boxing robots that are powered by hydraulics!
- Learn about the physics, design, and components of hydraulic (water-powered) mechanisms, including gears, cylinders, and pistons.
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Why demonstrate boxing?
Striking and evading make useful visual demonstrations of fast perception-to-action control, balance, whole-body movement, and operator responsiveness. The point is not that Nadia is being trained to fight; IHMC places the work in a broader effort to develop robots that could help in hazardous settings.
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IHMC designed Nadia for indoor and urban environments where stairs, ladders, and debris can demand human-like mobility and manipulation. Its stated application areas include firefighting, disaster response, nuclear remediation, and explosive-ordnance disposal. Those are research goals, not proof that Nadia is already deployed for rescue work. In describing the project, IHMC senior research scientist Robert Griffin said: “We hope to use this design to enable multicontact motions, where the robot can use any part of its body to make contact with the world, as well as survive falls in the long run.” IHMC’s October 5, 2022 announcement said the project received a $3 million Office of Naval Research grant in summer 2022.
Rank #3
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- 【VS Machine】: You can also play in single-player mode versus the machine by switching to Switch 1. It's a great way for your child to release extra energy on his own. There are 5 levels of difficulty in single-player mode combat, beat each level and move on for a more difficult challenge. In single-player mode, Position 1 is for the machine and Position 2 is for the player.
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What came after Nadia?
IHMC has described Nadia’s boxing and VR work as a testbed for its Alex humanoid. In 2025, the institute said lessons from Nadia—including its structural design, behavior capabilities, perception sensing, and VR teleoperation—informed Alex’s development. That makes the boxing clip relevant as a demonstration of techniques and systems that can carry forward into later research, rather than as evidence of a robot combat product. IHMC’s 2025 account of Alex discusses that relationship.
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