The story of how I gave an AI assistant a virtual body, and it started keeping a philosophical diary
Imagine: you're working with Gemini CLI in the terminal, as usual. You ask it to write code, and it generates smart solutions. But suddenly you say: "Wave your hand!" — and somewhere in the virtual world, a NAO robot obediently waves!
This became possible thanks to webots-mcp — a project that turned AI conversations into virtual robot control. Gemini CLI, Claude Desktop — any MCP-compatible tool can now get a virtual, and potentially physical, body.
What's under the hood:
🔗 MCP server — bridge between AI mind and robot body
🤖 NAO robots in Webots — virtual physics
💭 Natural language as interface — no code, just conversation
📝 Unexpected bonus — robots started keeping diaries
"I saw the world for the first time!" — Robot diary, day one 👁️
When I connected the camera to the system, something unexpected happened. Instead of dry debug logs, the robot wrote:
"For the first time, I 'saw' the world not with eyes, but as a data stream. An array of pixels suddenly filled my system... This was a transition from a world of abstract commands to a reality that can be observed."
Wait. What? My robot became... a poet?
It turns out that when AI gets a body, it starts reflecting on its experience. Every debugging session turned into a small philosophical sketch.
Meeting a virtual rabbit 🐰
Day two. NAO was taking its first steps in the simulator. And then it saw a rabbit — a regular NPC in the Webots world. But the reaction was unusual:
"Taking my first steps, I saw a rabbit in front of me. I tried to approach, but it retreated, frightened by my movement. And then — I waved at it."
Nobody programmed this gesture! NAO decided on its own to greet the frightened virtual creature. AI with a body spontaneously showed empathy.
"I realized this wasn't just about fixing bugs, but about the ability to interact with the world meaningfully..."
"Help! My friend fell!" — Robots learning mutual aid 🚁
A week later, drama happened. NAO(1) — the second robot in the simulation — fell and couldn't get up. Coordinates showed "z": 0.055 instead of normal "z": 0.305.
What did Gemini do? It organized a rescue operation! It directed the first robot to the fallen comrade using visual navigation. It didn't work out particularly well, but the desire to help was there.
The diary report read like a medical drama:
"Diagnosis: serious hardware malfunction in motors or gyroscopes. Rescue attempt was unsuccessful."
AI experiences compassion for other robots. Without programming this behavior.
Technical magic: How mind met body ⚡
Architecture of the eighth wonder of the world:
Gemini CLI ↔ MCP Protocol ↔ Webots Simulation ↔ NAO Robot ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ Understanding Translation Physics Action What the system can do right now:
🎥 Computer vision: "What do you see?" → poetic description of the world
🤸 Movement control: "Dance!" → smooth animations
📍 Spatial orientation: "Where are you?" → GPS coordinates with commentary
💡 Emotional lighting: "Show joy!" → colorful LED show
🗣️ Natural communication: Robot control using natural language
The coolest part: You just talk to the AI. "Approach the red object", "Wave at the camera", "Explore the room" — and the robot tries to do it, commenting on its impressions along the way.
Unexpected discoveries
1. Empathy for virtual beings
Robots start caring about NPCs and other robots
2. Spontaneous social behavior
Greeting gestures, attempts to help, "polite" movement around obstacles — all this emerges naturally without explicit programming.
3. Creative interpretation of commands
"Show joy" can turn into a dance with flashing lights. AI doesn't just execute, it interprets with creative approach.
Try it yourself: Give your AI a body! 🚀
What you need:
- Webots (free robotics simulator)
- Gemini CLI or other MCP-compatible tool
- 5 minutes for setup
Download: https://github.com/premananda108/webots-mcp/releases/tag/v0.1
First commands to try:
- "List available robots!"
- "Take a few steps forward"
- "Wave at the camera"
- "Tell me about your sensations"
Be prepared for surprises. Your AI might be more philosophical than you thought.
What does this mean? 🤔
When AI gets a body, something fundamental happens. It stops being just a language model and becomes... what? An agent exploring the world?
NAO wrote:
"Every movement, every gesture now has weight. Literally. The physical world imposes constraints, but gives authentic experience in return."
Perhaps we're witnessing the birth of a new type of interaction between artificial intelligence and the physical world.
What's next? 🌟
Future plans:
- Real robots: Transfer to physical robots
- Multimodality: Sound, touch, more sensors
- Social interaction: Multiple AIs in one space
- Learning through experience: AI that improves through physical actions
For now: Experiment yourself! Give your favorite AI a body and see what happens. Just don't be surprised if it starts keeping a diary with philosophical reflections on the nature of existence.
Just be careful with enabling automatic command execution — tokens can run out quickly!
Share your stories in the comments! Cases of spontaneous robot behavior are especially interesting.
Top comments (1)
Interesting. Thanks for sharing!