It's common for people nowadays to talk about man versus machine to reference the alleged inevitability of robots becoming mankind's overlords. Puma has taken this concept to a whole new level - and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
With the help of a NASA robotics engineer and MIT students, the German shoe and sportswear maker has stepped into uncharted territory and unveiled a "running robot," which it describes as "a programmable, self-driving, line-following robot" that can push athletes to reach their maximum speed by giving them "a visual target to beat."
The robot, called the BeatBot, doesn't actually run, it just moves insanely fast. How fast, you ask? It's capable of reaching speeds of up to 27.7 mph. In other words, it can match the 100-meter world record of Olympic Gold Medalist Usain Bolt.
J. Walter Thompson New York executive creative director Florent Imbert revealed that there wasn't any particular academic insight that led to the creation of the BeatBot. Rather, the inspiration came from the simple realization that humans can perform better when competing against someone elese - or in this case, something.
"We found a lot of anecdotal evidence that head to head competition raised performance levels, even a few studies that showed an uptick performance," he said. "But, to us, it felt like a human truth. Running against an invisible clock will never be as motivating as running against someone - or something."
The concept behind this is hardly new. Take the mechanical rabbits that racing dogs chase after during a competition, for example. They're there to push the dogs to their utmost limit. With that in mind, the BeatBot works in a similar way, except that the robot is far more advanced than any robotic rabbit can ever hope to be.
As a fully programmable robot, runners simply need to input the distance they wish to cover and the desired speed, and BeatBot will take it from there. Once its placed on the race track, it scans the line that it was placed on using its nine infrared sensors. At that point it's business as usual, with runners being able to race against their own best time, their rival's best time, or even Usain Bolt's best time. Furthermore, the data is processed in real time, so the machine is capable of making more than 100 maneuvers per second to keep itself on track at the desired pace of the athlete.
However, the BeatBot isn't just about running fast, it has a bunch of neat features, as well. For example, it possesses rear LED lights that allow runners to see the robot even in their peripheral vision and GoPro cameras attached on the front and back to record the athlete's performance during the race.
The BeatBot certainly sounds like every serious track athlete's dream, but for the time being, it is a dream that can only be experienced by a select few. Specifically, Imbert says that the robotic speedster is only available to Puma-sponsored athletes and teams due to the cost attached in developing one.
"While the cost of the current model makes it prohibitive for the average consumers to train with," he says. "The plan is always to develop new models, products and ideas to inspire every athlete."
Check out a video of the Puma BeatBot in action below:
