It won’t just be humans competing to be the fastest and best in the world at the Olympic Winter Games which start in Korea next week, there will also be a ski competition for robots on the sidelines of the Olympics, it has been reported.
Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy along with the Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement have got together to organize the ski tournament in which “self-operational humanoid robot skiers” will compete against each other. Each robot must be humanoid in design, at least 50cm high, hold on to their ski poles at all times, wear skis, and ski without human involvement.
Eight teams, all from Korean universities and tech firms, are to participate in the inaugural event which will see competing robots marked in a number of categories related to their performance on the competition slope, which is reported to be a slalom course 70 metres long and 20 metres wide.
Each team will get three chances to get their ‘ski bot’ down the slope aiming for a maximum 100 points each time.
The robot ski tournament is scheduled to kick off at 10am on February 11th at the Welli Hill Park ski resort in Hoengseong County near PyeongChang and is free for spectators.
(Image top from Wallace & Gromit A Grand Day Out)
