A robotic gymnastics trainer, is it feasible with current technology?
While watching the 2012 Olympics in London on NBC, I was captivated by the performance of Chinese and American athletes in diving and gymnastics, along with frozen shots of dives, vaults, and floor exercises. It occurred to me that we could easily design a computerized robotic trainer that would analyze, judge and rate not only events, but also work as a trainer in practice offering strategic advice to help athletes improve themselves, and I hate to say it. but the robotic system that I am envisioning would be even better than the human eye or a human trainer. Let’s talk.
You see, there was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal recently titled; “My Life as a Telecommuting Robot: Meet QB-82, a Slim Robot with a Bad Wi-Fi Problem, Testing the Limits of the Remote Worker” by Rachel Emma Silverman posted August 8, 2012. Okay, go Go to Google Images and search for “QB-82 Robot” and then come back to this article if you want.
Now, can you see how a robot like this could work autonomously, collecting videos, analyzing athletes in practice? All the video would be downloaded to the cloud for later review by the athlete. Once the athlete had perfect scores on several dives or gym routines, say 10 in a row, then they could advance to the next set of more difficult routines. The robotic system could reproduce in frozen frames, explaining to the athlete where they went wrong, based on position recognition, head angle, and how the feet, hands, and body were positioned each step of the way.
Okay, what if we had one of these robots in every high school in the country, or in every gym school, ballet school, diving school, and specialized summer camps? We would have an Olympic team that would sweep all events from figure skating to ski jumping, and from archery to pole vault. Why wouldn’t we invest in this? We would keep computer scientists busy on worthwhile applied science projects and help everyone who wants to excel in their sport with the tools they need to up the ante and improve a few levels.
Imagine that the United States wins all the gold medals even though our nation only has between 325 million people and the 1.4 billion citizens of China to choose from? I’d say that would be a great statement for Team USA – let’s make it happen! In fact, I ask you to consider all of this and think about it.
