Archive for Robots

Drones racing each other at breakneck speeds through an abandoned industrial complex, controlled through VR goggles that broadcast a first-person view simultaneously to the operators and fans alike.

This may seem futuristic, but it was actually one of the most imminent ideas recently discussed in a special panel dedicated to “Drones In Sports”. At last week’s On Deck Sports and Technology Conference, three drone sport experts came together to talk about the potential–and the potential pitfalls–that drones may provide for the future of sports technology.

As one panelist put it, drones in sports are currently “kind of a Wild West opportunity”, and Matt Higgins, CEO of RSE Ventures and vice-chairman of the Miami Dolphins, kicked the panel off with the example of the Drone Racing League. Earlier this year, the DRL started informally as groups of hobbyists flying drones through parking garages and abandoned buildings, but plans are in the works to turn it into a full-fledged sport, pitting sponsored teams of self-taught drone specialists against ex-military UAV pilots.

The DRL held their first two test flights earlier this year in the New York metro area, and plans to release their first official video “in the next few weeks.” When Higgins (an investor in the DRL) was asked how to make this a spectator sport, though, he responded candidly, “I have no clue.” He expects that streaming services like Twitch and Meerkat will be critical in building fan engagement with drone racing — and there certainly aren’t a lack of ideas to spice the sport up, as Bradley Woodrum outlined earlier this year.

Companies are also thinking about how drones can be used to improve the experience for players and fans in more traditional sports. In the eyes of the panelists, the “low-hanging fruit” was using drones to provide new angles for gameplay and practice, but the Amazon “drone-delivery” model was also a clear influence. The possibilities bantered about by the panel seemed limitless. Dispatching drones on golf courses for tee-side food delivery, handing out tickets with drones during games, the drone t-shirt cannon…

…wait a second, “the drone t-shirt cannon”?

It’s an undeniably cool idea, but taking a few seconds to visualize an unmanned aerial vehicle launching anything at fans may remind you that drones still face a number of psychological (and legal) obstacles. Eben Novy-Williams (a reporter for Bloomberg and the panel’s moderator) noted, as one example, that he was at a recent triathlon where a drone filming at the finish line elicited divided reactions–half the audience loved it, but the other half was clearly uncomfortable.

Chris Proudlove (an aerospace insurance expert with Global Aerospace) agreed that “we’re not quite there” when it comes to drones flying over crowds and that we need to “build a public sense that drones will be operated safely”, but that at the same time we don’t want to overstate the risk. The top concern of Proudlove’s clients when discussing drones was “invasion of privacy,” but he predicted this would be “moot” in less than 10 years. We’ve already become accustomed to ubiquitous smartphones that record video; from a certain perspective, drones aren’t terribly novel, just an extension of technology. The rest of the panel was even more bullish about the long-term prospects of us welcoming our new drone overlords.

But there’s still a lot to be done to make drones seem — and be — safer. Chris described geofencing technology to keep drones in and out of certain locations, such as ‘within the stadium, but at least 20 meters from the stands’, and better use of parachutes and other physical features. (Many of us probably remember the recent drone crash during the 2015 tennis U.S. Open, but the panelists were also well-aware of the 1979 mishap where a lawnmower-shaped model plane killed a fan during halftime at a Jets-Patriots game.) Chris also suggested that regulations distinguishing ‘micro-drones’ (of less than 2 pounds) and ‘the big ones’ could make drone safety easier.

In fact, the panel generally agreed that regulatory issues were the primary roadblock currently facing drones in sports. Right now, commercial use of drones (in the US) is illegal except when exemptions are provided by the FAA, and this is expected to remain the status quo until the FAA issues a full ruling on drones sometime in 2017. Until then, companies will need to build their usage of drones on a case-by-case basis. (Late last week, for example, the news broke that the FAA had allowed the NFL an exemption for drone usage — but only in empty stadiums.)

In short, it looks like we haven’t yet reached a drone-filled future of sport, but that day is likely drawing nigh. When Eben asked the panel for a bold “five-year prediction,” panelist Jon Ollwerther suggested that by 2020, we’d see drones being used in “every major American sport”– even down to the high school level.

Boston Dynamics, the now Google-owned robotics firm, released a video on Monday of it’s latest little terrifying robot, Spot:

The applications here are manifold: It could be a modern St. Bernard with a cask of whiskey for the stranded mountain traveler; it could be a vital supply delivery mechanism for war-torn or disaster-struck locales; and, most terrifyingly, it could be a deadly ground-based drone in the coming Future Wars.

But pertinent to us, they can replace the most-often-abused athletes: race animals. Or more specifically, greyhound dogs. Not only does the greyhound racing industry have a reputation — if not a history — of animal abuse (direct from owner to dog), it also has the unintended consequence of greyhound overbreeding. This can and has resulted in unacceptable euthanization rates among former race dogs.

So, is with most modern problems, the answer is probably robots. Let’s walk through the above video one more time and point out some of the pertinent details:

• 0:00
  Spot decides to go for a walk. Did he decide for himself, or was it a matter of programming culminating in this? Was it fate or free will? We’ll never know. Because they never show anybody controlling this robot.
• 0:22
  Craig from accounting, having no discernable soul, emulates the role of the typical greyhound goon, and Spot weathers it like a champ.

  

• 0:29
  “Maybe if you win more races, I won’t be able to kick you because my solid gold shoes will be too heavy.”
• 0:51
  All-terrain dog races! ALL-TERRAIN DOG RACES!
• 1:09
  Seeing Spot dressed in a gray, foam-based armor excites me at the possibility of combat robot races, which is where the sport would inevitably lead.

  

• 1:21
  Did anyone else just pee themselves a little? Seriously, where’d this second robot come from?
• 1:39
  The only thing more terrifying than two all-terrain robot dogs is the shadow they cast.
  

  

• 2:45
  No robots were harmed?! I THINK WE WANT TO KNOW IF THEY RAISED UP AND OVERTHREW THEIR CREATORS; NOT WHETHER OR NOT THEY BROKE A WIRE.

I hope you’re as excited as me about the future of robot racing! Will they drive themselves around a circular course, or be driven by a pilot a la drone racing? Will all-terrain mountain courses draw the yawning gaze of Vegas? Will the robots self-actualize, overbreed, and then rise to power through democratic and soft-power means?

The answers, of course, are: “Both,” “probably,” and “no, violent revolution.” And I personally can’t wait to see some robot dog racing!

The BBC had a drone article recently that surveyed both the history and potential uses for drones, as well as examined their rapidly decreasing cost and increasing quality. This furthers the idea Michael Tunney presented on these pages — the idea of Battle Bots 2.0. And what I’m saying is that the world is ready for drone sport. As costs decrease, there is increasingly fewer reasons to not jump into this exciting world of drones doing athletic things for us.

Behold, France has already turned the corner and is zipping down the next hedgerow:

First of all: What a much of mega nerds. Secondly: How awesome is that?! Recreating one of the better chase scenes in movie history as a drone race? The view these pilots get looks nothing less than an absolute thrill adventure.

What better way to combine the exciting new technologies of our era — virtual reality and drones? Well, here’s another way we could take it up a notch:

There are two things here: a) Those hoverbike drones plus that French drone course equals a world-changing racing event of unparalleled awesomeness. And then b) that same device, maybe made life-size, makes for an awesome actual recreation of the forest chase scene from Return of the Jedi.

Or maybe just hoverbike races on standard race course? Or all-terrain hoverbike races? THE POSSIBILITIES!

1. Games could be broadcast live on sites like Twitch or even YouTube.
2. As the sport grows, goggles that show the stationary view of the mounted camera can be replaced with integrated VR-camera technology, so that whenever a driver’s head moves, the camera moves with him.
3. Or better yet! Maybe the multi-camera technology involved in Google’s Street View cars becomes small enough that all views are broadcast simultaneously. The driver wants to keep his eyes forward? Fine. Joe Blurpington of Constance, Iowa, wants to watch the rear as drones chase the leading vehicle? He can do that too!

What I’m saying is: This will be awesome, or I will throw an earth-shattering tantrum.

Perhaps this is the robot device that will bring future generations to their knees in anguish and empathy for our generation, but alas it exists:

Yes, BeachBot is a little robot turtle that draws stuff in the sand. Using its little cold metal fingers, it tirelessly scrapes designs into a Swiss beach near you. Why does this matter? What does this project merit that it should pull, by my count, eight engineers away from the matters of world hunger and missing sock matches? Well here’s an obvious item to me: beach sports.
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As this nation entered the 21st century, few could have predicted the little-known show BattleBots would plant the seeds for the next evolution of brutal robotic combat. Sure, BattleBots only aired for three years on Comedy Central and was watched by approximately three people, but it is now clear the show was ahead of its time with the emergence of the Aerial Sports League (ASL) this year.

The founder of the ASL, Marque Cornblatt, is also the founder of Game of Drones, a hardware company that manufactures some of the booming industry’s most resilient drones. Priced at $650, The Game of Drones Actions Sports Airframes are currently sold out on the company’s website. They are nothing to trifle with—built to withstand water, fire, and extreme impacts. In the below video you can even see a man shooting one with a shotgun.

After starting in a local barn with friends, Cornblatt’s ASL is now touring around the country. “Originally, we thought the sports league was a way to promote the hardware, but in a way, the league’s become the driving force,” said Cornblatt in an interview with Betabeat. With the FAA anticipating over 7,500 civilian drones to be flying in American airspaces by 2018, it’s a league that’s almost certain to flourish in the coming years.

According to Betabeat, the rules of the game are simple. Each drone operator starts with three points and loses one every time their drone hits the ground. The first person to zero loses. In his interview with Betabeat, Cornblatt said he sees television as the next logical step for drone sports. “I see us doing a permanent show in Vegas, but we’re going to have a show on TV very soon. It’s an inevitability—the TV show frames itself around the development around that Vegas product.” With behemoths like Amazon making drones a central part of their future business, it’s clear that drones will be part of our future as well. Whether an ASL TV show will have the same short-lived fate as BattleBots remains to be seen, but the company does have a head start in capturing the lion’s share of an exploding market.

(Header image via Game of Drones)

Well, here’s something new to the world of sideline cheering: robot cheerleaders. This is actually rather cool, considering that they’re ROBOT CHEERLEADERS and they could probably shoot fireworks from their backs at some point. Probably a fire hazard, but you know, it’s a possible thing.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

At a demonstration in Tokyo, a troupe of 10 of the robots moved around in unison to form circles, squares and heart formations, to the bouncy accompaniment of J-pop music.

There’s a lot of possibilities with robot cheerleaders, I think, especially something that would lead to more robotics in sports. Not necessarily robot umpires, though that’s always a possibility, but robot vendors. Who wouldn’t want their beer being served by robots? Each robot being able to bring you beer on tap right to your seat. Robot cheerleaders that can throw hot dog sandwiches out into the crowd. This is a thing that this technology can provide for fans.

It could raise debate over the “human element” being destroyed in games, but it’s also something that moves society into a futuristic, Jetsons-esque lifestyle that, if I’m being completely honest here, is kind of completely cool. Now if only someone would make that hoverboard a real thing.

(Header by Takahiro Kyono)