At the annual RoboGames event, held in San Francisco, the dream of a Robotic Future is quite literally, alive and kicking. Now in it’s sixth year, the volunteer managed, RoboGames competition, attracts thousands of Robotics enthusiasts from all over the world. Some come to battle their mechanical minions to the death in the Robot Arena whilst others show off their Robotic Art Exhibits. And the most dedicated and serious of attendees, present their academic research papers.
All in all, the RoboGames is a fantastic example of convergence in the Global RoboCommunity where people of all ages can enjoy three days of Robotics fun and Games. The enormous variety of karate-kicking humanoids, autonomous soccer-playing robots and remotely controlled combat droids do more than just entertain the onlooking spectators. Many children and students are inspired by the “show” to become the Robotics engineers and RoboArtists of the future. This is the “fun face” of Robotics Technology where “outsiders” can compete in seventy different, completely open events, with the world’s most talented Robot builders.
Previously known as the Robolympics and providing a real-world, live venue for the enormously successful RoboWars style crowd-pullers, the RoboGames provides a tangible experience that goes beyond photos and videos on a computer screen. Attendees, not only get to see, hear and touch these Robot Icons, they also mingle with hordes of highly focused, knowledgeable experts and keen enthusiasts, that create an atmosphere of excitement and community “buzz”.
An important feature of the RoboGames experience, is the inclusion of Robotic Art Exhibits that fall into four categories or types of RoboArt. Alongside static robot-themed sculptures, you’ll find kinetic robot sculptures, music playing robots and even bar-tending robots. Why is Robot Art important at a competitive robotics event? Well, apart from adding a warmly received decorative element to this type of venue’s typically drab environment, not all the visitors are uber-techie, left-brained types, that drool over the latest servos. Many family members and friends tag along for the day too and as strange as it may seem to some, these right-brained folks appreciate a little aesthetic creativity, in between helpings of Robotic Gladiators, spewing fire and ripping out each others electronic innards.
What may not be immediately apparent to newcomers, is how exciting, entertaining, dramatic and gracefully beautiful, Robotics Technology can be. Whether it’s a soccer-playing Aibo nudging the ball into the goal with its nose or the Robo One Humanoids showing off their head-standing skills, you don’t need to understand the phenomenal amounts of artificial intelligence and programming that “breathes life” into these Robotic performers. And for kids, it’s the coolest science and technology exhibition they’ve ever been too! Even the interactive elements are reminiscent of their cherished game controllers and radio-controlled toys, fortunately making accessibility a complete non-issue.
But, it’s not all fun and games. Under the hood of this crazy and marvellous event, beats the heart of serious academic research. Amongst the many papers that are submitted you’ll find proposals for solving problems such as “fuzzy auto-balance control for humanoid robots”, “swarm robotics solutions for soccer bots” and “improvements for ultrasound based navigation and obstacle avoidance”. The RoboMagellan event attracts university researchers in a mini Urban Challenge and Scott Gasparian addressed “emotional” robotics with his Chakratron, a Robot Buddha that puts on a light show when its belly is rubbed.
So, what were some of the highlights of this year’s show? Which Robot Stars afforded their unforgiving, human trainers a gold medal or two? First, it has to be said that the USA seem to have an unfair advantage in terms of numbers of entries and location and this could have something to do with their landslide victory across gold, silver and bronze medal wins. But hey, that didn’t stop Canada winning the Heavyweight Combat gold medal with “Ziggy” and Brazil’s “Pe de Boi” taking gold in the 3kg autonomous Sumo event. America dominated the categories of Robo One Humanoids, RoboHockey, ArtBots and the Junior League, where Lego is King. The UK did well in the “Open” section, with its R2D2 robot, walkers and ribbon climbers. With 18 countries, 403 robots and 620 engineers taking part, RoboGames holds great potential for continued growth and interest as the world’s leading Robotics Tournament.
The RoboGames and other similar events across the world, perform a vital function in attracting young people to the scientific disciplines that are currently registering low numbers of applicants in the world’s most distinguished universities. It could be argued, though, that the best designers and engineers, will go ahead and build the robots of the future anyway, probably in their basements. Historically, we see arguments for both massively funded research projects with large numbers of qualified participants and the “lone genius” that could stumble across the next paradigm-changing discovery. A sensible strategy would be to fund both approaches and raise public awareness about Robotics Technology in general, which is precisely what the RoboGames event, so effectively, achieves.
Tags: Aibo, future of robotics, Robo One, RoboArt, RoboGames, Robotic Art Exhibits, Robotics Technology, RoboWars
