 You may not have known it, but robots are hot at this year's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea (one even held the Olympic torch at one point). With robots on the rise around the world, it was only a matter of time before we had a robotic Olympics. And it's actually quite adorable. Far from the menaces mainstream culture has made them to be, some cute little bots hit the slopes at the Welli Hilli Ski Resort about an hour outside Pyeongchang earlier this week. Robots from eight different robotics teams were programmed and designed to move like their human counterparts and get the fastest time. Some robots succeeded in this goal, and some fell a bit short. Take a look: Arguably the most adorable bot at the competition was a little guy named Taekwon V. Measuring a mere 75 centimeters tall, he actually took home the gold (and a $10,000 reward) for this contest. Taekwon V is programmed to detect the red and blue flags on the slope and avoid them, though his first attempts at doing so were a bit comical. The following video shows Taekwon V's first attempts at skiing down the hill, then a fascinating look at his sensors in action: As good as these mechanical athletes are, they've still got a long way to come. Will robots give humans the boot in the Olympics any time soon? Probably not, but it's still a lot of fun to watch. I like talking about sci-fi, Star Wars, and occasionally outer space every Monday. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out my other "Real Life Sci-fi" blog posts here.
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