Camel-Riding Robots 217
misterpies writes "Of the many jobs robots could be put to use, here's one I'll bet not many slashdotters have considered - camel jockeys. According to the BBC, from next year racing camels in the United Arab Emirates will be ridden by robots. And for once, the folks put out of work won't be complaining - mostly children (some as young as four) who are reportedly abducted or sold by their families to unscrupulous racing-camel owners. How long until we see robots take over from humans in other sports?"
Complex task vs. low wages (Score:3, Interesting)
What surprises me is that a relatively complex task in an area where human wages are fairly low should justify the replacement of humans by robots, and yet in countries where wages are sky high, human workers are doing much simpler tasks.
The fact that is appears as surreal as a python sketch obviously shows up my lack of knowledge of other cultures.
Actually, we might see cyborgs first... (Score:3, Interesting)
Motor Racing (Score:4, Interesting)
It's also more practical financially, as in most of the large motor racing series there is already a substantial budget for hardware maintenance.
robocup (Score:4, Interesting)
My uni has a team competeing. [mu.oz.au]
We do pretty well at the f180 and abio class comps.
Re:Now, this is an example... (Score:5, Interesting)
As regards your percapetion of the arab world sports may I remind you that we, in the west, put migets on horses and race them. Anyway makes more sense that American Football or Cricket...both incomprihensable to outsiders.
Re:Why? (Score:1, Interesting)
Humans vs. Robots (Score:2, Interesting)
One of the things most people who enjoy sports like is the ability to relate to the players, and the fact that they can aspire to be like them or view them as role models, etc. This aspect of sports would be lost if the players were robots instead of humans.
Helps the welfare of the Jockeys how? (Score:2, Interesting)
My guess is the amount of food won't go up!
Re:Complex task vs. low wages (Score:3, Interesting)
I think it will require radical changes in the way we design and think about things, but its proven possible to achieve - ATMs and other vending machines and printing are some of the more successful ones that I can think of.
In most cases I think that it is the flexability of humans that wins out - most of the situations you mentioned, the task varies too much to be automated properly yet - e.g. street sweepers have to navigate obscure obstacles and deal with a multitude of subtly different targets.
But, for example, how about robots to prepare fast food? It's a straight forward repetative task which a machine can be designed for - non-trivial perhaps, but well within todays technology.
Humans require various costs above their salary, even subtle things such as increased work space, which may be valuable. I think it is already feasible for, say, McDonalds in ultra busy areas (such as Oxford Street, London).
The way you pay for robots is very different too. Robots require a huge up front design cost, a noticable investment to buy, and a smaller amount to run - varying quality of design probably affects maintainence costs the most.
There are various subtle improvements that robots can bring to mundane tasks too, such as the ability to work much longer hours, or at off-peak hours, attention to detail, consistant performance, improved speed and power in some roles, and so on.
Re:Complex task vs. low wages (Score:3, Interesting)
Baseball already has this (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Actually, we might see cyborgs first... (Score:2, Interesting)
fast food (Score:3, Interesting)
10 years ago (when I worked there) McDonald's was testing a robot fry cook. At the time it was too expensive. However they took one part of the cook and installed that everywhere: a robot to fill the fry baskets.
Fast Food kitchens are a good place for robots. People should not work near hot grease, because of the danger of burns. (One guy I worked with was hospitalized due to burns from cleaning the vats. After that everyone started using the provided gloves)
Re:Why? (Score:3, Interesting)