A video of a huge robot walking down a room surrounded by some people is being shared with the false claim that it shows the King of Bahrain with his robot bodyguard. We found that this is actually a video of a robot at a defence exhibition held in Abu Dhabi in 2019 and has nothing to do with the King of Bahrain.
CLAIM
The roughly 30-second clip shows a man walking down a crowded room, followed closely by a big robot. People can be seen following behind the robot and taking videos of him.
Many people shared this video on social media claiming that this shows the King of Bahrain arriving in Dubai with his robot bodyguard, adding that this robot is fitted with 360 cameras and in-built pistols.
WHAT WE FOUND
On running a keyword search with ‘robot Dubai’, we came across several videos which suggested that the robot was named ‘Titan’. We then ran a search for ‘Titan robot Dubai’ and came across a report from 19 February, 2019 by Khaleej Times, which said that this is a robot called Titan which was present at the International Defence Exhibition (Idex) held in Abu Dhabi in February 2019. According to the article, the robot would come out once every hour to greet visitors of the exhibition and welcome them.
The article also said that Titan is a famous walkaround robot and also the world's first commercial entertainment robot artist, developed by the British company Cyberstein, adding that it is used by event management companies in the UAE and worldwide to add something special to an event.
It is clear then that the King of Bahrain is not in this video.
We also came across the website of an events and exhibitions company called Emerald who claimed to be the sole UAE agent for Titan the Robot. On their website, we also found a video explaining what Titan is as well as other promotional videos showing Titan at other events.
Further, we also found a website dedicated to Titan the Robot, while an interview with the creator of Titan, Nik Fielding showed that the robot, which first emerged on the world stage in 2004, is meant for “producing innovative and futuristic entertainment.”
Therefore, it is clear that this robot is not a bodyguard and the video has no relation to the King of Bahrain.
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