KUKA Robot Dances at 2016 Paralympic Opening Ceremony

At the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games 2016 Timo Boll, KUKA brand ambassador for China, was carrying the German flag. Now, at the 2016 Summer Paralympic Opening Ceremony, a KUKA robot was dancing along with Amy Purdy from the USA, accompanied by a very special music of Sérgio Mendes.

08 September 2016

It is the moment that will stick to people’s heads for a very long time: The opening ceremony of the 15th Summer Paralympic Games. On the 7th of September the stage in Rio de Janeiro belonged to people with disabilities doing extraordinary things – and: to a dancing KUKA KR 210 R2700 F – a KR QUANTEC robot for high payloads. The show was full of energy, building up the adrenaline of the audiences on TV and inside the stadium.

KUKA Paralympic Opening Ceremony — A KUKA robot was dancing along with Amy Purdy on stage at the 2016 Summer Paralympic opening ceremony. Photo by Georgeana Godinho.

How the KUKA robot came on stage in Rio de Janeiro

Back in May 2015, KUKA Brazil was attending the FEIMAFE exhibition fair at the Anhembi Exhibition Center. “On the second day, Wednesday, I was in the booth and two people enter at our booth and start to look at the robots. By a certain distance I was following them and I realize that they stopped in front of a KR QUANTEC mounted on a raiser boom, with 2.20 meters high”, tells Edouard Mekhalian, Managing Director of KUKA Roboter do Brasil Ltda. And continues: “After sitting in one of our meeting rooms at the booth they explained to me of which organization they are part of: "CC2016" was Cerim?nias Cariocas 2016, or, 2016 Cariocas (from Rio de Janeiro) Ceremonies. They were the Brazilian company responsible for all opening and closing ceremonies of the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic games, in Rio de Janeiro.”

After several meetings, creative ideas and deep discussions the decision was made: a KUKA KR QUANTEC will be dancing along with Amy Purdy from the USA on stage at the opening ceremony of the 15th Summer Paralympic Games.

The fifteenth Summer Paralympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7th to 18th of September 2016. The idea behind the games: integration is more important than to highlight the differences.