The birthplace of the Olympic Games played host to the International Humanoid Olympiad as robots showed their athletic flair with games of football, shadow-boxing and arrow shooting.
The four-day event hosted numerous humanoid robots alongside experts and developers on Monday at Ancient Olympia, as reported in AP News.
Those present were able to playfully interact with and observe the robots as they engaged in sporting demonstrations.
Organisers limited events to what humanoids could reasonably attempt, while laying the foundation for annual competitions that would help serve as avenues to annually assess the progress made in these types of robots.
Patrick Jarvis, who is co-founder of robot maker Acumino with the Olympiad’s organiser Minas Liarokapis, noted: “We were trying to get the discus and the javelin, but that’s tough for humanoid robots”.
“We also can’t say whose robot can do a high jump because you’d have to build special legs … and that’s not necessary for most humanoid robots,” Jarvis said.
The event incited questions about the development of humanoid robots with Liarokapis, saying:
“I really believe that humanoids will first go to space and then to houses … the house is the final frontier.”
The academic added his belief that it will take at the very least over ten years before robots are able to help in domesticated environments.
“I’m talking about executing tasks with dexterity, not about selling robots that are cute and are companions.”
The rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence has been shown in recent years, though the process of evolution for humanoid robots is much slower with the need for real-world actions that slow the process tremendously.
Numerous experts brought their ideas to the Olympiad, including Hon Weng Chong, CEO of Australian biotech company Cortical Labs, which is developing a so-called biological computer that uses real brain cells grown on a chip.
