[HN Gopher] The Tokyo Olympic Robots
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       The Tokyo Olympic Robots
        
       Author : evo_9
       Score  : 52 points
       Date   : 2021-07-31 13:52 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.npr.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.npr.org)
        
       | 123pie123 wrote:
       | I would definitely watch an olympic games full of robots
       | competing with each other.
       | 
       | Each country could submit various robots with varioius
       | specifications - kind of like an olympic games version of robot
       | wars
        
         | ChrisKnott wrote:
         | They did this in the UK in the early 00s it was called
         | Technogames
         | 
         | https://youtu.be/nOB5FtD7nnw
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | hanniabu wrote:
         | Yeah, something like those soccer robot games seems fun.
        
         | justicezyx wrote:
         | There were a dota2 bot match events before. Dota2 had a great
         | bots moment like the go, when open ai's dota2 bots beat human
         | players, and showcased different meta strategy of winning the
         | game.
         | 
         | I believe the bot ti was no longer hosted because there seems
         | no strong monetizing channels. Even that a lot of people enjoy
         | them.
         | 
         | [1] https://liquipedia.net/dota2/Bot_TI/2019
        
         | m4rtink wrote:
         | This reminds me of the Ghost in the Shell anime (IIRC second
         | season) where Batou, one of the characters mentions he
         | represented Japan on the Paralympics in boxing in the past.
         | 
         | The thing is that he is a full body cyborg ex JSDF soldier with
         | with Ranger training that can literally bend steel bars with
         | bare hands and jump between buildings. And for historical
         | reasons all cyborgs in the near future cyberpunk world of GitS
         | compete on the Paralympics, making them much more interesting
         | than the "normal" Olympic games where only non-augmented humans
         | presumably still compete with each other, with all the
         | limitations of a standard human body.
        
       | blamazon wrote:
       | If you like this sort of stuff, (and are in USA) you may enjoy
       | being a booster for a local college robot football team:
       | 
       | https://collegeroboticfootball.org/build/
        
       | zoomablemind wrote:
       | Are there also [?Toyota] self-driving vans?
       | 
       | I spotted in some photo from the Olympics the vans which look
       | just like the "rugbyball bot" but a full size for passengers.
       | 
       | Edit: Apparently these are busses e-Palette by Toyota, hydrogen
       | fuel-cell powered. Level-4 self-driving capable, but there's a
       | designated driver on-board. Up to 20people, range 150km, speed
       | 19km/h.
       | 
       | Here's what's inside e-Palette bus:
       | 
       | https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/corporate/29933371.html
        
         | pests wrote:
         | You say hydrogen fuel cell powered but the link you posted says
         | electric-battery.
        
           | zoomablemind wrote:
           | Indeed, it's electric battery powered, not hydrogen powered.
           | I guess, I got confused reading other links which described
           | promised hydrogen use during the Olympics, including the
           | Olympic flame.
           | 
           | Sorry for the confusion.
        
       | gallego2007 wrote:
       | They're cute, but I'm a bit disappointed that the Field Support
       | Robot doesn't actually retrieve the ball itself, rather it
       | follows the official on the field and waits for a payload.
        
       | aaron695 wrote:
       | The point where you realise Japan is a country that has been
       | LARPing it had robots for 40 years.
       | 
       | Demo of the Field Support Robot (FSR) -
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDHK2rrH_2Y
       | 
       | It is not a easy project, if you hit an athlete that's a problem.
       | They mention in tests with visually impaired long jump they had
       | to reduce gear noise of the FSR to not interfere with the other
       | team member.
       | 
       | But it could have been done 20+ years ago, there's still no way
       | they are even close to being cost effective. And I predict they
       | will be used sparingly in the field since they will be too buggy.
       | This is not an iterative design, it's a show it off then put it
       | in a cupboard design
        
       | new299 wrote:
       | The mascots were selected by the public:
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miraitowa_and_Someity#Selectio...
       | 
       | And the mascot robots were designed around this, which isn't
       | clear in the article.
       | 
       | I feel like any article on the Olympics should mention that >80%
       | of the Japanese population was against holding the Olympics at
       | this time [1]. And that Tokyo is now experiencing the highest
       | SARS-CoV-2 daily infection rates it's seen to date. While
       | government officials claim this is unrelated to holding the
       | largest sporting event in the world [2].
       | 
       | [1] https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14351670
       | 
       | [2] https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14408562
        
         | makeitdouble wrote:
         | > by the public
         | 
         | More precisely, preselected by a committee, who then had
         | elementary schools choose the winner.
         | 
         | There also was wide plans to have elementary school kids go
         | watch the Olympics, it seemed a really big effort went into
         | drilling the event into them.
        
         | rtpg wrote:
         | Something I've heard (no great sourcing) is that at the very
         | least Olympic staffers/participants who are getting COVID are
         | for the most part Japan-based staffers and the like, and not
         | people who came from abroad.
         | 
         | My gut feeling is that this recent spike is partly the
         | "lockdown rejection" that we saw across the US last year, in
         | particular stuff like trying to ban alcohol sales in
         | restaurants seemed to have really made a lot of people just
         | kind of give up with the state of emergency recommendations.
         | 
         | And like... there aren't any spectators right? The amount of
         | people at the event is maybe comparable to how many people are
         | at a local supermarket in one day.
         | 
         | Not to defend the gov'ts decision to do the olympics, or any of
         | this thing in general. There will probably not be many real
         | consequences to these people, and people are watching it on TV,
         | but it definitely doesn't feel very "state of emergency" and
         | sets the wrong tone for this moment. It's just that this spike
         | doesn't feel single-factor.
        
           | Danieru wrote:
           | The spike is most likely delta by my guess. This is the first
           | spike Japan is experiencing after delta has taken hold.
           | 
           | Japan's low vaccination rate means nothing but masks are
           | holding delta at bay.
        
         | bamboozled wrote:
         | Thanks for pointing this out, while the bread and circuses are
         | free and on offer, Japan is entering a real state of emergency.
        
       | kzrdude wrote:
       | Basketball throwing robot in the 2020 olympics (for fun):
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH9m0L7F-sE This robot is
       | developed by Toyota, apparently.
        
       | beebeepka wrote:
       | Hail, Hail Robonia, a land I didn't make up
       | 
       | I am actually looking forward to robot competitions, even AI
       | Quake/StarCraft battles.
       | 
       | The closest thing we have right now is radio controlled
       | battlecars banging each other. Not terribly exciting after the
       | first few minutes
        
         | wiml wrote:
         | There are actual autonomous robot competitions. They don't tend
         | to be as adrenaline-filled as the battlebots, they really don't
         | make good TV, but they're fun. Some have quite low barriers to
         | entry. If you want to dip your toe in you can put together a
         | mini-sumo or maze-running entrant without a ton of
         | time/materials investment.
        
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       (page generated 2021-08-01 23:02 UTC)