Russia’s Railway Robot Dogs Are Learning to Respond to Voice Commands
Russian Railways is developing a “physical AI” system for its quadruped robots, aiming to let them understand speech, navigate complex environments, and replace humans in high-risk rail infrastructure inspections.
Robot dogs being tested on Russia’s railways are about to get a major intelligence upgrade. Russian Railways plans to teach its quadruped robots to understand and execute voice commands, adding a new layer of autonomy to machines already deployed in hazardous environments.
The “smart” control system is being developed by specialists at the Research and Design Institute for Informatization, Automation and Communication in Railway Transport, which focuses on digital technologies for rail infrastructure.
A Robot Built for Dangerous Jobs
The robot dog is a biomorphic machine equipped with sensors and an onboard intelligent module. Russian Railways began testing the robots in December 2024, with the explicit goal of replacing human workers at sites where the risk level is especially high.
Speed, Sensors, and Hard-to-Reach Places
Each robot dog is fitted with cameras and lidar systems that transmit real-time data about its surroundings to a human operator. The robot can reach speeds of up to 20 kilometers per hour, climb stairs, traverse piles of ballast, move across track superstructure elements, and inspect areas that are otherwise hard to access.
Beyond environmental monitoring, the robots can also perform diagnostics on the lower components of rolling stock, a task that traditionally requires manual inspection in confined and potentially dangerous conditions.
Toward “Physical AI”
The next step is the development of what engineers describe as physical artificial intelligence — a system that tightly integrates perception, reasoning, and action. This approach would allow robot dogs to perceive the environment, recognize spoken commands, and carry them out as a unified process, writes the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Before being widely deployed at railway stations and infrastructure sites, the biomorphic robots will undergo extensive testing. Russian Railways says these trials are meant to ensure reliability and safety under real-world operating conditions.
Part of a Broader Robotics Push
Railway robot dogs are one piece of a broader push toward service and industrial robotics in Russia. As we wrote earlier, students at the Moscow Aviation Institute are developing a polite robot waiter designed to work in trains, retail spaces, and large public events.
Taken together, these projects point to a clear trend: robots in Russia are moving beyond remote-controlled tools and toward systems that can listen, interpret, and act — bringing physical AI out of the lab and onto active railways.
