A humanoid robot being escorted away by police in Macau has gone viral online, prompting jokes about what some called the world’s first “robot arrest.”
Updated
March 17, 2026 12:53 AM
Macau police officer accompanying the humanoid robot. PHOTO: THREADS@BOXOF_CHOCOLATE
Police in Macau recently detained a humanoid robot after it frightened an elderly woman on a public street. The unusual encounter quickly spread online, prompting jokes about what some called the world’s first “robot arrest”.
On the evening of March 5, the robot was taken away by officers after the encounter triggered alarm among bystanders. Videos circulating on social media show an elderly woman confronting the robot on a sidewalk, visibly distressed and shouting that her “heart is pounding” while demanding to know why such “nonsense” was happening on the street. In the clip, the robot raises both hands toward the woman after she lashes out in fear — a gesture many viewers interpreted as a sign of apology.
Shortly afterwards, two officers from the Macau Public Security Police Force were seen escorting the robot and a man believed to be its operator away from the area. An officer is seen placing his right hand on the robot’s shoulder — the same posture police often use when presenting arrested suspects in official photographs.
That scene quickly spread online, fuelling jokes about what some called the world’s first “robot arrest”.
Photos shared online show a humanoid robot with long limbs and exposed mechanical joints, built from a black metallic frame without an outer shell. In dim lighting, several commenters said it resembled a “moving skeleton” — a striking sight for pedestrians encountering it unexpectedly on the street.
Witnesses said the woman appeared severely shaken and an ambulance was eventually called to take her to the hospital.
The incident also sparked discussion online about robots operating in public spaces. Some commenters argued that experimental technologies should be tested in controlled environments, while others said machines moving through public areas should have clearer designs or safety measures to avoid alarming pedestrians.
It remains unclear who deployed the robot or what purpose it was serving in the area at the time of the incident. Authorities have not released further details about the device or whether any action was taken following the encounter.
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Illustration of CodeFusion Studio™ 2.0 showing AI, code and chip icons. PHOTO: ANALOG DEVICES, INC.
Analog Devices (ADI), a global semiconductor company, launched CodeFusion Studio™ 2.0 on November 3, 2025. The new version of its open-source development platform is designed to make it easier and faster for developers to build AI-powered embedded systems that run on ADI’s processors and microcontrollers.
“The next era of embedded intelligence requires removing friction from AI development”, said Rob Oshana, Senior Vice President of the Software and Digital Platforms group at ADI. “CodeFusion Studio 2.0 transforms the developer experience by unifying fragmented AI workflows into a seamless process, empowering developers to leverage the full potential of ADI's cutting-edge products with ease so they can focus on innovating and accelerating time to market”.
The upgraded platform introduces new tools for hardware abstraction, AI integration and automation. These help developers move more easily from early design to deployment.
CodeFusion Studio 2.0 enables complete AI workflows, allowing teams to use their own models and deploy them on everything from low-power edge devices to advanced digital signal processors (DSPs).
Built on Microsoft Visual Studio Code, the new CodeFusion Studio offers built-in checks for model compatibility, along with performance testing and optimization tools that help reduce development time. Building on these capabilities, a new modular framework based on Zephyr OS lets developers test and monitor how AI and machine learning models perform in real time. This gives clearer insight into how each part of a model behaves during operation and helps fine-tune performance across different hardware setups.
Additionally, the CodeFusion Studio System Planner has also been redesigned to handle more device types and complex, multi-core applications. With new built-in diagnostic and debugging features — like integrated memory analysis and visual error tracking — developers can now troubleshoot problems faster and keep their systems running more efficiently.
This launch marks a deeper pivot for ADI. Long known for high-precision analog chips and converters, the company is expanding its edge-AI and software capabilities to enable what it calls Physical Intelligence — systems that can perceive, reason, and act locally.
“Companies that deliver physically aware AI solutions are poised to transform industries and create new, industry-leading opportunities. That's why we're creating an ecosystem that enables developers to optimize, deploy and evaluate AI models seamlessly on ADI hardware, even without physical access to a board”, said Paul Golding, Vice President of Edge AI and Robotics at ADI. “CodeFusion Studio 2.0 is just one step we're taking to deliver Physical Intelligence to our customers, ultimately enabling them to create systems that perceive, reason and act locally, all within the constraints of real-world physics”.