Authorities in Cologne, Germany, are investigating an incident involving a humanoid robot alleged to have sexually molested a 16-year-old girl on Saturday evening. The teenager was standing outside a burger restaurant with two female friends shortly before midnight when the robot approached her from behind. Police say the device touched the girl’s buttocks and performed thrusting movements.

The robot, described as a roughly four-foot-tall Unitree R1 Air model of Chinese manufacture, was dressed in tracksuit bottoms, a white vest, a false moustache, and a chunky mock-gold chain. With red and gold coloring, the machine's appearance has been compared to the armor of the comic book character Iron Man. The model can be programmed for autonomous movement or controlled remotely, although it remains unclear if it includes safeguards against inappropriate behavior.

Two males, aged 16 and 19, are reportedly connected to the incident. The younger individual is said to have been livestreaming the robot’s actions on the social media platform TikTok at the time. Police discovered both suspects on a nearby street corner and subsequently located the robot in the trunk of a Volkswagen vehicle. Both the device and the suspects’ phones were confiscated as part of the ongoing investigation, which is being treated as a suspected sexual harassment case.

Officials are examining how the robot was made to carry out the alleged behavior, with questions raised about whether the actions were a result of pre-programming or manual remote control. This case may represent one of the first instances involving a robot used in such a manner. A somewhat comparable incident occurred in 2024, when a humanoid robot groped a female television reporter at a technology conference in Saudi Arabia.

Cologne police have not yet released further details and have emphasized the investigation aims to clarify the circumstances surrounding the incident. The case highlights emerging challenges related to the regulation and ethical use of increasingly sophisticated robotic technology.