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Androids do battle in robot version of the Olympics

Robots from around the world competed for supremacy in soccer, combat, sumo wrestling and other arenas beginning on Friday at a machine version of the Olympics in San Francisco.

Engineers from more than two dozen countries are pitting their creations against one another at RoboGames, deemed the planet's largest robot competition by Guinness World Records.

This year's RoboGames features 83 categories, 18 of them devoted to walking "android" robots designed in human forms.

A highlight of the event, which runs until Sunday, remains robot combat in which machines weighing as much as 154kg destroy one another in what amounts to a demolition derby behind bulletproof glass.

The last robot still in operating condition wins.

flame throwers

Battle robots feature weapons such as saw blades, flame throwers, and hydraulic hammers.

"The combat robots keep getting better each year," RoboGames founder David Calkins said.

"We've got teams flying in from around the US and Canada, Brazil, Mexico, the UK, Netherlands, Australia, and even Iran just to compete in the robot combat," he said.

He established the event in 2004, initially dubbing it the ROBOlympics.

Calkins said that his aim is to provide a forum for "cross-pollination" between engineers that tend to remain isolated in specialty fields such as computer programming and mechanical engineering.

Among RoboGames gaining in popularity this year is soccer in which androids scramble to score goals the way human players do.

US robots will defend the "android soccer" gold medal won last year after besting Britain's metallic team.

"Soccer is very big this year," Calkins said. "And there are lots of humanoids."

This year's RoboGames hosts the Federation of International Robosoccer Association's 12th annual Robot World Cup.

FIRA is the world's oldest robot soccer organization, and teams from more than 20 countries will participate in its robot soccer events.

learning

"The improvements these guys make in their robots each year always amazes me, and I see great robots all the time," Calkins said.

"It's great to see soccer alongside fighting robots and all the other events -- everyone is really learning from each other," he said.

Along with robot sumo in which the first to be shoved from a small ring loses, there are robot kung-fu matches and a marathon.

Along with having fun, the RoboGames are meant to inspire engineers to make breakthroughs that result in better-built machines that can emulate tasks humans take for granted, such as finding one's way along a street or jumping.

RoboGames organizers said "expect to be awed" by a previous Gold-medal winning Japanese robot named "Plen" that has been modified to roller skate and skateboard.

"Robotics is becoming the new lifestyle sport of the thinking age," RoboGames organizers said. "The Renaissance had classical music; we have high-powered DC motors."
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