[One for the weird tech file.] Ride 'em, Robot: Qatar Offers Solution To a Jockey Shortage
Tighter Minimum-Age Rules Threaten Camel Racing; A 59-Pound Droid at Reins By YASMINE EL-RASHIDI Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL October 3, 2005; Page A1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112829933039558118.html?mod=technology_featured_stories_hs DOHA, Qatar -- Two years ago, Swiss robotics company K-Team SA received a curious email from the state of Qatar about camel racing. It landed on the desk of Alexandre Colot, who had never heard of camel racing. He needed a map to find Qatar. Yet here was the tiny desert state asking his company to help save its national pastime by designing a robotic camel jockey. The camel-racing world in Qatar, an island nation in the Persian Gulf, was on the brink of turmoil. Although a minimum age of 15 years for jockeys was set in 1980 across the Gulf, antislavery groups estimate that thousands of underage jockeys are still used in the region. Children as young as four are bought from impoverished parents or simply kidnapped in countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Two years ago the U.S. State Department and human-rights groups began sharply criticizing the use of children as jockeys, and last year the United Nations urged prosecution of adults involved in it. Qatar, along with the United Arab Emirates, raised the minimum age to 18, and expressed a new determination to enforce it. But that's left camel racing in a quandary. To get the most out of their camels, camel racers say, jockeys should weigh less than 60 pounds. That rules out even teenage boys. "Adults are too heavy -- it slows the camels down," says Ustaz Sakher, who has been involved in the sport in various roles for over a decade. Known as the "sport of sheiks," camel racing is a multimillion-dollar industry in the Gulf. Camels are valued for the role they played in the deserts of the Gulf -- transporting Bedouins and their belongings in the days before the region found statehood and wealth -- and racing them is considered part of the national heritage. Prestigious races create as much fanfare here as the Kentucky Derby or the Royal Ascot in their home countries. Qatar's two main events carry grand prizes of about $250,000, and a winning camel can sell for up to $1.5 million. Horse racing is also popular in the Gulf, but it's a rich man's sport; camel racing attracts rich and poor alike. Camel-racing publications sell in the thousands. The races take place in desert complexes, some of them vast -- one in Dubai covers more than 10 square miles -- where spectators watch as the animals run for up to six miles. (Horse races in the U.S. mostly cover ¾ mile to 1¼ mile.) In Qatar, the government encourages locals to get involved by offering camel breeders free land, free veterinary care and subsidized camel food. In the U.A.E., the Al Ain-based Embryo Transfer Research Centre for Racing Camels has pioneered artificial insemination and embryo transfer. And in Dubai, the Camel Reproduction Centre supported a crossbreeding program that produced "Rama the cama,' " the world's first camel-llama hybrid. "Outsiders don't realize the importance of the sport to our culture," says Sheik Hamid bin Jassem bin Faisal Al-Thani, chairman of the Camel Racing Organizing Committee. With heritage, big business and the country's reputation at stake, Qatar's prime minister, Sheik Abdullah bin Khalifa Al-Thani, assured his population as human-rights pressures rose in mid-2003 that some way would be found to save this "indispensable sport." Soon he called Sheik Abdullah bin Saud Al-Thani, chairman of the Qatar Industrial Development Bank and a prominent member of the clan that rules the country, floating the idea of developing a robot jockey. Mr. Al-Thani, whose bank funds development projects, immediately understood this was a national responsibility. From his office, whose main guest area is decorated with huge framed camel-race pictures, he organized a Robotic Jockey Committee comprised of a dozen members drawn from the bank, the Camel Racing Committee, local scientists and others involved in the sport. "The first thing we knew we had to do was study the behavior of camels, understand their psychology," Mr. Al-Thani says. After speaking with breeders, trainers, racers and psychologists, the committee summarized the relationship between the camel and jockey in a detailed report, noting crucial elements of camel behavior. Camels' eyes, for example, roll back far enough to see directly behind them. This meant any robotic jockey would have to bear some resemblance to a human. Camels also have exceptional hearing and might be spooked by mechanical sounds, they determined. The committee concluded that what was needed was a remotely controlled robot with a human form and voice. Early in 2004, K-Team was called in and offered the $1.37 million contract. A K-Team delegation arrived in Doha with a battery of digital cameras, taking hundreds of pictures to document the subtle interaction between jockeys and their camels. They shot from every angle, in different race situations, to capture the movements and the reactions of both jockey and camel. Back in Switzerland, it took months at the drawing board to adjust balance and shock-absorption and to protect against heat. Camels race at around 25 miles an hour -- about 10 or 12 miles an hour slower than racehorses -- in temperatures well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. "We conducted 100 hours of testing with 20 prototypes," says Mr. Al-Thani. The final product is a 59-pound, human-shaped droid. Mechanical arms and legs help it lean, balance and pull at the reins. The robots are fixed to the special camel saddle, equipped with straps, hooks and clips to keep them in place. They receive orders from trainers riding along behind via a remote-control system attached to the back of the camel. Equipped with a global positioning system, cameras and microphones, the devices allow trainers to track the animal's heart rate (170 to 172 beats per minute is a camel's maximum), the sounds they make and even their facial expression. And the trainer can use a microphone to deliver such exhortations as the typical "haey hej'in!" The camel trainer uses a joystick on a laptop-size control box to give commands: pulling back to tighten the reins and slow down the animal, forward to ease up on them and left and right for turns. The robot can also operate a whip, and a button on the joystick sends a signal to pull the reins sharply for an emergency stop. After initial skepticism, some camel owners are warming to the robojocks. "They listened to us and kept coming back to show us what they were making and to ask our input," says trainer Omar Al-Bakher. "And it's good what they've made." The government is providing camel owners complimentary two-day training courses in robot jockeying, for which demand is increasing. Over 50 Qatari camel trainers, out of perhaps 100 in all, have received diplomas. Qatar will sell the saddles at subsidized prices, and rent out the robots by the race. The robots will make their debut when the six-month camel-racing season begins later this month. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu -- No virus found in this outgoing message. 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