How Hugo launched a human companion robot on X

Hugo is a furry bipedal character robot from Dynamic Creatures, built to walk through theme parks, hotels, resorts, and stores and meet guests in person. The Cambridge company left stealth in September as Boston Dynamics' entertainment and hospitality partner, and it is already working with a major theme park and a retailer. On its own site, the company places these mobile characters between fixed animatronics that perform for a crowd and service robots that complete tasks, and this video is the first detailed public look at that idea in a costume. Hugo is a purple, horned character with a blue nose and a flower on his head, running on a 43-actuator body and SnowJay, the company's software for movement, perception, and behavior. The clip shows him walking an office, dancing, high-fiving people, and hugging children. Dynamic Creatures says it is developing a Vision-Language-Expression model that ties what the robot sees and hears to gesture, movement, and expression, along with the navigation and safety needed for close contact with the public. First customer deployments are planned as managed pilots in early 2027, starting with operators alongside assisted autonomy. CEO Marc Theermann was chief strategy officer at Boston Dynamics. CTO Farbod Farshidian led research at the Robotics and AI Institute and worked on learning-based control for Atlas. Hugo follows Danielle, a poodle prototype built on Boston Dynamics' Spot, as the company starts a cast of characters for entertainment and hospitality brands.