First Robot Olympics Explained

The First Robot Olympics.[1] took place in Glasgow,[2] Scotland on 27–28 September 1990.[3]

The event was run by The Turing Institute at the Sports Centre at the University of Strathclyde. It featured 68 robots from 12 countries and involved over 2,500 visitors over the two-day period.[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Background

During the 1990s the Turing Institute had been involved in a wide range of robotics activities and had developed links with many leading robotics laboratories as a result of both student exchange and a series of collaborative research projects.[12]

The event was conceived and directed by Dr Peter Mowforth, director of the Turing Institute, as an events-based meetup for robot enthusiasts and builders.[13] [14] Although there had been single event competitions and national events for competing robots, this was the first time that such a large, varied and international Robot Competition had taken place.[15]

Many of the robots that came to the event reflected key research themes that were present at the time. For example, the two-wheeled balancing 'torch carrying' (pre-Segway) robot[16] that opened the event was associated with the institute's work on using machine learning applied to the inverted pendulum[17]

Strathclyde University was an academic associate of and adjacent to the Turing Institute.[18] The university made their sports hall complex available for the two-day event.

Events and results

EVENT Gold Silver Bronze
Obstacle Avoidance ASTERIX. University of Toronto, Canada. Anthony Green & Pavel Rozalski OSCAR. AI Dept. Edinburgh University. Scotland YAMABICO. Tsukuba University, Japan. Shoji Suzuki
Pole Balancing PENDULUM. Salford University, England. F Nagy & G A Medrano-Derda LANKY. Lancaster University, England MENACE, Turing Institute, Scotland. Bing Zhang
Phototrophic ALPHA PHOTON. Kent University, England. David Bisset ICARUS. The Shadow Group, England. David Buckley.
Manipulators BELGRADE/USC HAND. University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia BCI. St Patricks High School, Coatbridge, Scotland.
Biped Race CARDIFF BIPED.[19] Uni. Wales, Cardiff, Wales. Paul Channon, Simon Hopkins & Prof Pham ROBBIE. Paisley College of Technology, Scotland. Ken MacFarlane, Gordon Allan
Javelin YORK ARCHER. Museum of Automata, York, England WILBERFORCE. East London Polytechnic, England. Martin Smith ELEPHANTS TRUNK. Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland. J B C Davies, J Morrison
Multi-Legged Race PENELOPE. Edinburgh University, Scotland. D J Todd GENGHIS. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, AI Lab, US. Olaf Beck, Prof. Rodney Brookes & Colin Angle
Wall Following YAMABICO. Tsukuba University, Japan. Shoji Suzuki SAM. Kent University, England. David Bisset, Jason Garforth, Jeremy Laycock
Talking RICHARD 1ST. Turing Institute, Scotland. Ketil Undbekken, Peter Mowforth SHADOW WALKER. The Shadow Group, London, England. David Buckley
Wall Climbing ZIG ZAG. Portsmouth Polytechnic, England. A A Collie,[20] J Billingsley, R P Smith RVP II. Soviet Academy of Sciences, Moscow, USSR. Professor Chernousko, Professor Gradetsky RVP I. Soviet Academy of Sciences, Moscow, USSR. Professor Chernousko, Professor Gradetsky[21]
Behaviour GENGHIS. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, AI Lab, US. Olaf Beck, Prof. Rodney Brookes & Colin Angle SHEEP & SHEEP DOG. Computer Science, Strathclyde Uni. Scotland SIAS. City Montessori School, Lucknow, India. Mr Ashish Panwar

National medals table

Country Gold (3 points) Silver (2 points) Bronze (1 Point) Total
England 4 5 0 22
Scotland 2 4 2 16
USA 1 1 0 5
Japan 1 0 1 4
USSR 0 1 1 3
Canada 1 0 0 3
Yugoslavia 1 0 0 3
Wales 1 0 0 3
India 0 0 11
Mexico 0 0 00

Disqualifications

Four judges supervised the events to ensure 'fair play'. They were:

• Professor Frank Nage, University of Salford

• Professor Ruzena Bajcsy, University of Pennsylvania

• Eddie Grant (IEEE Representative, University of Strathclyde)[22]

• Professor Hans P. Moravec, Carnegie Mellon University[23]

Robot Event Reason for disqualification
YAMABICO, Japan Talking Could not speak English
SIAS, India Talking Completely incomprehensible
ROBUG II, England Wall Climbing Veering out of lane and demonstrating inappropriate behaviour in front of children.
MEXBOT, Mexico Multi-Legged Race Damaged during transportation. Dropped when offloaded from ship in UK.

Special awards

Several organisions provided special awards for different categories of competition.

IEEE Robotics & Automation Society Young Roboticist Award Brian Carr (School pupil), St Patricks High School, Coatbridge, Scotland. Awarded £25 book token.

NatWest Bank Prize for Technology Transfer Olaf Beck, Prof. Rodney Brookes & Colin Angle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT, AI Lab, USA Awarded with a Caithness Crystal bowl and £200 from NatWest Bank.

'Turing Institute Best School Prize' XYBOT Inverkeithing School, Class 7S, Scotland. Awarded with a cup and a cheque for £100.

'Olympic Champion' YAMABICO from Tsukuba University, Japan. Prize given to Shoji Suzuki. Awarded with a Caithness Glass Trophy.

Sponsorship

As well as being organised by The Turing Institute and hosted by the University of Strathclyde, the event had seven main sponsors:

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Guinness World Records: First Robot Olympics. guinnessworldrecords.com/. 8 November 2015.
  2. Web site: Glasgow's Guinness World Records. Glasgow Living. 8 November 2015.
  3. Book: Children's Britannica : yearbook 1991.. 1991. Encyclopædia Britannica. London. 0-85229-228-7. 90.
  4. News: Tim Willard. No Relay Race on This Olympic Field. 8 November 2015. World Future Society. Los Angeles Times.
  5. Gavaghan. Helen. Mechanical athletes totter towards Olympic glory. New Scientist. 1990. 1737.
  6. News: L' OLIMPIADE DEI ROBOT. 8 November 2015. La Repubblica. 1990.
  7. Grabowski. Rainer. immer an der Wand lang : die erste Roboter Olympiade. CHIP. 1991. 1/91. 314–318. 732623432. 9 November 2015.
  8. News: Machines strut their wizardry; Japanese entry wins gold medal in 1st Robot Olympics. 9 November 2015. 29 September. Chicago Tribune. 1990.
  9. Web site: Robot Olympics. Agenda (Italy). Agenda Magazine. 9 November 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304142821/https://agenda19892010.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/robot-olympics/. 4 March 2016. dead.
  10. Ken. MacFarlane. Sporting (and unsporting) Robots. Electronics World & Wireless World. 1991. January. 54. 9 November 2015.
  11. News: The chips are down. 10 November 2015. Herald. 1 June. Sunday Herald. 1990.
  12. Lamb. John. Making Friends with Intelligence. New Scientist. 1985-08-22. 30–32. 8 November 2015.
  13. News: Pete Mowforth With Lorraine Kelly. 8 November 2015. World News Network. WN.
  14. News: LEWIS. Alun. SCience Now. 8 November 2015. Radio 4. 19901002. BBC. 1990.
  15. Web site: Buckley. David. 1st Robot Olympics. DavidBuckley. 8 November 2015.
  16. Web site: Trolleyman Lighting Olympic Flame. Science Photos. 8 November 2015.
  17. Book: McGee, Grimble and Mowforth. Knowledge-based Systems for Industrial Control. 1990. P. Peregrinus Limited. 978-0863412219.
  18. Web site: Turing Institute. University of Strathclyde Archives. Strathclyde University. 8 November 2015.
  19. Web site: UWCC biped robot in action at Robot Olympics. GalloImages. The Science Photo Library. 9 November 2015.
  20. Web site: Collie. Arthur. Professor Arthur Collie. Scotsman. The Scotsman. 9 November 2015.
  21. Book: Felix L. Chernousko, Nikolai N. Bolotnik and Valery G. Gradetsky. Manipulation Robots. 24 November 1993. CRC Press. 245. 9780849344572.
  22. Web site: Grant. Edie. Biography. NCSU. NC State University. 8 November 2015.
  23. Web site: Moravec. Hans. Biography. Carnegie Mellon University. CMU. 8 November 2015.
  24. Web site: NatWest bank's advertising robot. Science Photo. Science Photo Library. 8 November 2015.