We’ve got the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics — are the Robot Olympics next? Maybe! The metal and wire crowd might not have any Phelpsian swimmers in its ranks yet, but sports-playing robots are becoming more and more common. They’re not exactly graceful or athletic just yet, but hey, they and their human friends are working on it! We all started somewhere, right?

Robot Skiing

We just saw these bots! Last week, the Ski Robot Challenge took place in South Korea alongside the Winter Olympics. With cameras for heads and clad in little ski jackets, the robots used machine learning software to recognize red and blue flags on the course, then try to ski downhill and avoid them. There were struggles, there were wipeouts, and there was a lot of veering off course for the taller bots!

Next page: Robot soccer