This thing right here might as well be the Loch Ness Monster with an iPhone 11,
or footage of an alien drinking a milkshake in Area 51.
It's a highly guarded secret, and anyone who knows about it,
or has seen it, has been forbidden from admitting that it exists for months.
That is, of course, until it made its way here to my kitchen counter, and now to you.
Say hello to DJI's latest creation, the RoboMaster S1.
You all know DJI,
it's the world's largest drone maker,
and perhaps China's most popular tech company.
People obsess over its products with an Apple fanboy-like lust.
And DJI delivers, bringing out one new drone after another.
But now DJI has decided to bring its talents to the ground.
With the RoboMaster S1,
it has built a robot aimed at consumers who want to drive around really fast,
and then shoot each other with pellets and lasers.
Because if there's one thing the world really needed,
it's the violence of video games brought to real life.
The idea for this new robot started here,
it's the annual RoboMasters competition
that DJI holds in Shenzhen.
College engineering students show up for a couple of weeks
and try to destroy each other with a variety of robots.
As you can see, it's a lot of fun.
The big idea then was to shrink these robots down
to little ones, that regular people could build
and then use in their own battles.
You know what says "inspiration and creativity live here"?
This poorly lit, brutalist building in the Shenzhen suburbs
that is a DJI research and development lab.
Several months ago I came here to get a firsthand look at prototypes
of the RoboMaster S1.
This fellow here is the lead of the design team
who helped bring this device to life.
"Can you walk me through some of the different parts?"
"So this is a video transmitter, and here is a camera.
And also there's a shooter mechanism."
"You've got the bullets in there?"
"Yeah, 90% of them are made of water.
And when it hits things, it's smashed and it disappears.
And on each robot, the lights here indicates the hit point.
When you have repeated been hit,
the robot will end up being destroyed."
"That's the object of the game, is to chase each other around
and hit these plates?
Is there like a laser?"
"Yeah, and if you always aim at the center you should be fine."
"All right let's do it."
"Ok, let's do it."
"Are you really good at this?
Are you just being nice to me?"
"No no no. I'm a good driver, but not a good shooter."
"So you've got the controller, but there's a different mode
where you can just use your body?"
"In this way,
we allow people to control the movement of the rover.
You can see it's a very sensitive."
Because DJI founder Frank Wang is a cruel, cruel engineer,
you cannot just buy a RoboMaster S1 and play with it.
No, uou must first assemble it by hand
and learn things along the way about robotics and coding.
Here's a group of youngsters DJI turned into its product testing guinea pigs
at something it billed as a summer camp.
"This robot is also an educational tool to teach programming language.
For example, it can be used as a autonomous driving car,
but we don't have built-in functionality for this,
kids have to learn to to program themselves to achieve these functionalities."
The hope is that this will teach kids a few things,
get them hooked on robotics,
and turn into a worldwide sporting phenomenon of sorts.
"We hope that, in the future, robotics will become a major sport,
like football, basketball.
That's our vision for this product."
"Ow. I'm dead." "Yes" "Nice game."
"My kids would die to play this."
And boys, daddy made your dream come true.
Six months after my trip to China
I got my hands on a couple of the finalized units.
Here's my oldest son Bowie and his adorable sidekick Tucker
who don't yet know just how bad the DJI instructions are going to be.
"Gentlemen, I have assembled you here today
with cookies and milk for an important project."
"Are going to build a robot?" "We are going to build a robot, if you guys are up for it."
"You're going to have to do most of the building."
Like a yak on about education and teachable moments,
but really I just wanted my kids to build this thing so I could play with.
"That's the coolest tool I've ever seen."
"Tucker look at this."
"On your mark. Get set. Go!"
It ships with this racing mode,
where you can use computer vision to spot targets placed around the house.
"Engageing in close quarters."
"Ow, I keep crashing."
Of course, what's more fun is shooting pellets.
"Here's your orbs, boys."
Or it has laser mode,
You know, for less mess.
"This is the least fun part of the day."
Will many people actually buy the RoboMaster S1?
It's hard to say.
The product requires a lot of actual work to use.
It's going to be expensive, and it's much more nichey than DJI's usual devices.
So it's fair to say the struggle is real for DJI trying to create a global RoboMasters army.
As we see how things play out, let's just hope that the kids remember to wear their safety goggles,
and the DJI has a good insurance policy.