Tamil Nadu's Ayudha Puja gets an AI twist as robots perform aarti, light incense

AI-enabled humanoid robots performed aarti and offered incense at a puja in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore. The ceremony blended traditional worship of workplace tools with emerging robotics.

In Short

• AI humanoid robot lights camphor in Coimbatore's Ayudha Puja
• Robots actively participate in traditional worship rituals
• Ceremony blends tradition with modern technology

A video of an AI-powered, humanoid robot lighting camphor and offering incense to a deity became the centre of attraction of the Ayudha Puja celebration in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore. The event, held at a robotics company in RS Puram, brought traditional worship and modern technology together in a ritual.

Ayudha Puja is traditionally observed by worshipping the tools, machinery and vehicles people rely on in their daily lives and professions. In Coimbatore, however, the machines being honoured became participants in the celebrations themselves.

The event featured robots developed by MIRAKILE, including an educational information robot and another designed to raise awareness. Instead of remaining on the sidelines as objects of worship, the robots took on an active role in the ceremony.

The highlight was a humanoid robot that performed rituals usually carried out by people. It was used to light camphor and offer incense to the deity, bringing a technological twist to familiar customs associated with the festival.

Watch the video here:

The celebrations also included worshipping spare parts of the robots, extending the traditional practice of honouring the tools of one's trade to machines powered by artificial intelligence and robotics.

The sight of a robot participating in aarti offered quite the unique blend of the familiar and the futuristic.

While the rituals followed traditional practices, the machines performing them represented advances in technology that are increasingly finding applications beyond factories and industrial settings.

(With inputs from Apoorva)

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