First Two-Legged Robot Marathon is Under Way In Osaka, Japan

gregg writes "Five knee-high androids have crossed the starting line in the world's first marathon for two-legged robots.The contestants are expected to take four days to complete the course, which involves 423 laps of an indoor track." The live robot marathon video feed will make you realize that not all robots are worthy of fear. Or even worth watching for more than a few minutes.

This is how it begins

[Jordan (jman)]

This is how it begins. First, they are running laps. Next thing you know, a T1000 is running you down in the streets.

Re:

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

This is how it begins. First, they are running laps. Next thing you know, a T1000 is running you down in the streets.

I would have modded this funny if the Terminator franchise was about how evil technology is.

Re:

[severoon]

I just hope they programmed those robots using Guice. Because...uh...Guice has a solution to the "robot legs" problem. -ba dump ching-

Btw, you have the funniest sig on slashdot. I've seen it a million times, and I laugh every time.

Re:

[SnarfQuest]

Are we likely to see one of these turn into liquid? Now that would be cool, especially if there are lots of sparks!

Lame.

[doti]

Unfortunately, these robots are not autonomous.

Cheating?

[Prosthetic_Lips]

Hey, who is judging this? One of the robots just crossed through the middle to get to the other side! Wow, those Japanese are good, they even built in cheating circuits!!

Re:

[MichaelSmith]

They are the guys. Sorry.

You didn't even need to mention it was in Japan.

[intellitech]

I could've guessed that easy.

Not Surprising

[Conrthomas]

Who wants to bet that the Japanese will make some kind of game show out of this?

Re:

[Sulphur]

Who wants to bet that the Japanese will make some kind of game show out of this?

Robots have an advantage in the Hand Bike.

I read that terribly wrong in my head.

[Anonymous Coward]

Five-knee high androids. Picture it, it's majestic.

QWOP

[HTH NE1]

How is the QWOP-bot doing?

Re:

[doubleplusungodly]

Showing real courage, it ran 0.5 meters before falling back and hitting itself on the head, frying all its circuitry in the process.

Number Five is alive

[gmagill]

or is it five in number?

either way, that's the coolest fucking thing I've seen in a while.

Re:Number Five is alive?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

or is it five in number?

either way, that's the coolest fucking thing I've seen in a while.

I dunno . . . some dude walked up to me and said, "YOU are . . . number six . . ." I'm still trying to find out what he meant be that . . .

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

either way, that's the coolest fucking thing I've seen in a while.

Wow...

Just... wow.

Re:

[doti]

would be, if they were autonomous.

Is Betting Open?

[Scarletdown]

Are there any bookies covering this? I want to place a 2 bit bet on one of these bots.

Ok but it is a controlled environment.

[Anonymous Coward]

This surprises me that we are only at the stage of robots racing on an indoor track (completely controlled environment). I understand that a bipedal running robot is difficult but I am more impressed with a four legged robot that can traverse rocks, ice and unstable conditions. Let me know when the bipedal robots run a real outdoor marathon course, ie. the Boston marathon.

tn requin pas cher

[abbywer]

tn [bypal.com]

And the Winner was..

[JoeCommodore]

We heart Osaka!

That was a fun event to watch, I stayed with it for the last couple hours. Near the end they help up the lead robot to make the finish more exciting, Osaka would have been #2, the other one (I cant find a contestant list) was of the same design. the third place robot (still moving) did about 219 laps of the 422, next was 127, and the fifth robot didn't have a lap count at the end, so probably failed early on. Ah, heres the results: http://www.mastinepal.com/showthread.php?t=11938 [mastinepal.com]