Camel-Racing Robot Jockey To Replace Humans?

Camel racing is huge in the Middle East.

The sport's jockeys are boys, some as young as 4 years old, who are either bought from their parents or kidnapped from their home countries and taken to the Gulf to ride.

The boys live in bleak conditions and are underfed before races to keep their weight down.

Human rights groups for years have condemned the practice of obtaining and using such children as jockeys.

Now engineer Alexandre Colot of the Swiss robotics firm K-Team has created a RoboJockey (above) that may finally supplant the wretched boy jockeys.

The rulers of Qatar, one of the hotbeds of camel racing, say that by 2007 all camel racers will be robots.

The robots can receive commands from a remote control up to a half-mile away.

A camel handler follows the rider and animal in a vehicle and uses a joystick on the laptop–sized remote to issue four instructions: forward, backward, sideways and whip action.

The robot, in turn, uses those commands to drive the camel.

The 60–pound robot is also equipped with a GPS satellite beacon and shock absorbers for the rough ride.

To prevent camels from rejecting the robots, handlers spray their jerseys with traditional perfume used by trainers.

"It was important for us that the camel recognizes and accepts the robot, so we had to make him as human as possible," said Colot, the designer.

20 riding robots are expected to be ready when racing season starts in October.

Sheik Abdullah bin Saud, the Qatari official in charge of the project, said plans are underway to set up an assembly plant, a maintenance center and a training institute for robot users.

If you don't mind a bit of heat and you're really good at videogames, I bet you could make a nice pile of cash in a hurry commanding a robotic camel driver.

Don't apply within, though; contact Sheik Abdullah.

[via Tarek al–Issawi and USA Today]