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Humanoid Robot Combat in Japan
theluckyleper writes "New Scientist reports that the semi-annual Robo-One contest took place last week in Kawasaki, Japan. Humanoid robots (2 arms, 2 legs) battled it out one-on-one and in multi-robot brawls. The goal is to knock opponents over, or off of the combat platform. If a prone robot cannot stand back up in 10 seconds, it is eliminated. PC Watch (Japanese only) has more images and videos of the event."
interesting that the first thought that i have about what to do with robots is have them kill each other .. i'm glad someone agrees.. the horror! the horror! hehe
It's an order of magnitude more complicated to do AI in one of these then to do a remote control one. I read this complaint every time there is a Battlebots article or similar - the AI is not up to doing full control of one of them, at least with amateur development. It just won't stand a chance against a human opponent.
A little AI doing balancing might be helpful, but it is still a massive increase in complexity - they would have to be retrofitted with sensors and the ability to read the sensors, and processing the sensor data properly isn't easy (the DARPA race vehicles found interpreting the data they were receiving to be one of the most complex issues). I could see a large team working together getting it done, but it's an amateur sport at this point, and the resources aren't really there to do something that advanced and still stay competitive.
So let me get this straight. Companies are just beginning the path to humanoid robots and one of the first applications optimizes them for fighting?Wouldn't it be equally as challenging and interesting to have relay competitions? How about rock climbing? Terrain traversal?
Nope. Fighting. Swell. I'll be sure to make a copy of the article for my grandson to reflect on a hundred years from now.
You are checking your backups, aren't you?