Robot runs marathon in South Korea, apparently the first time this has happened

The South Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has forced one of its robo-dogs to run a marathon. The Boston Dynamics-esque quadrupedal walking robot became the first of its kind to complete a full-course marathon in an official event, according to a Sunday announcement from the Institute. The race was the 22nd …

[Winkypop]

Great idea

Let’s see the robo-Olympics.

International robots battling for sporting glory.

No more drug cheats, no more male/female confusion.

Great way to advance battery technology!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Great idea

Robot Wars you say?

[Martin an gof]

Re: Great idea

The first few series of Robot Wars included races and obstacle courses. It was a much more interesting concept than the orgy of wanton destruction it has become.

M.

[Phones Sheridan]

Re: Great idea

You might be confusing Robot Wars with Techno Games. It ran at the sameish time as season 3 of Robot Wars, and then for 3 more years, with the same teams competing and the same judges.

Enjoy!

[Martin an gof]

Re: Great idea

Quite happy to be correctd but I don't ever remember watching Techno Games. Robot Wars was required kebab night viewing for my mates at my place. Just checking the Wikipedia article, the first two series of RW included the technical challenges which were later spun off to TW. So maybe "two" isn't "a few" but hey, who's counting?

:-)

M.

[Khaptain]

Re: Great idea

Someone would find the means to cheat very, very quickly.

Winning for some people means no limits.... I have never understood that frame of mind.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: Great idea

Like the people who cheat at war games / simulations / exercises with the amazing leap of logic: "This is war!!"

[David Hicklin]

Re: Great idea

> Someone would find the means to cheat very, very quickly.

And end up with a raft of rules and regs like F1 to even out the playing field ...

[pmugabi]

A precursor to the robot dog in the Black Mirror MetalHead episode.

When it has the ability for a few short bursts of speed, this will be more scary than a real dog.

[Persona]

Be very afraid. China's Black Panther 2.0 robot dog can run 100 meters in under 10 seconds

[Chasxith]

Re: Keep One Eye on the Future

I guess unlike my last dog at least this one can't drool all over...well, everything. Although equally I don't think I'd want the robodog trying to climb onto my lap for a cuddle.

[DS999]

I'm sure they could make one much faster than that

But they'd need batteries with a better energy storage to weight ratio, because moving the legs faster requires more power which requires more battery but that makes it bigger and requires thicker legs to support that weight which require more power to move faster ...

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: I'm sure they could make one much faster than that

So make it bigger, like AT-AT size ?

[Howard Sway]

Re: I'm sure they could make one much faster than that

It would be easy : fit it with wheels and it would be considerably faster using the same amount of energy. The one advantage of robot design is not being limited by what took nature millions of years of evolution.

[DS999]

Re: I'm sure they could make one much faster than that

That's not going to be a valid result for a marathon, anymore than my world record time would be if I rode my bicycle in the NYC marathon.

[katrinab]

Re: I'm sure they could make one much faster than that

An electric car can easily manage 26 miles on a single charge at pretty high speeds.

[werdsmith]

Only 5 minutes slower than my first Marathon.

[Doctor Syntax]

And faster than my daughter in Athens at the weekend - although she now says that'll be her last.

[werdsmith]

I said that afterwards too.

And my wife said no more children after our first one.

Memories fade.

[Gene Cash]

A high torque transparency joint mechanism

A what?

(did a ctrl-F for "correct" and didn't find a corrections link)

[MrBanana]

Re: A high torque transparency joint mechanism

Look at the top of this, or any other, comments page. It's right there:

Post your comment | House rules | Send corrections

[Frank Leonhardt]

Unfair. Robots have feelings

Completing a marathon in 4:19:52 makes it a SlowBot? What's Laura Dobberstein's best time over 26 miles, I should like to know.

[O'Reg Inalsin]

Next time let Eliud Kipchoge hold the controller

There is a YT Video: "(10x Speed)RAIBO2 Completes Full Marathon(42.195km) in 4 ... "

There is a relay team of students running behind the robot with a controller. It's unclear if the robot also has it own avoidance system - it doing remarkable well at not hitting others especially at the start when its very crowded. The robot might have been able to go faster if Eliud Kipchoge had been running with the controller.

[Anonymous Coward]

Should be good enough

To hunt down and kill the remains of the human race.

Most of us couldn't walk to the shops let alone run a marathon.