Technology and natural running might seem mutually exclusive, though any number of minimal and barefoot purists regularly log their GPS-tracked workouts on mobile devices and social networking sites. The newest entry to Future Jock is the Joggobot, an airborne robot running companion.The robot is actually a quadrotor, or helicopter with four rotors. It carries a camera and special tracking software that zeroes in on the runner’s customized t-shirt that has sensors. The Joggobot is programmed to fly about 10 feet in front of the runner, acting as a pacer or robotic rabbit that looks a lot like something out of Blade Runner. If the runner stops running, the Joggobot politely drops the ground and waits for the runner to resume running.
According to a report on MSNBC’S Future Tech site, “The robot only works while running in a straight line and has a battery life of just 20 minutes…but the technology is good enough for the team at the Exertion Games Lab at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, to do some preliminary analysis that will help design future robot running companions.”
On Exertion Games Lab’s website, the developers, who come from a gaming background, presented their vision and philosophy behind the drone-like device:
We believe that in the future, exertion activities will become a new experience, involving interactions with autonomous embodied systems. We use Joggobot to ask the question how (and if) robots should support us when exercising… We ask questions such as “Should the robot be a pacemaker for the jogger? If so, can this be motivating? Or should the Joggobot be more like a dog, reacting to the jogger like a pet companion? How does this affect the interaction, and in particular, the exercise experience for the jogger? Will joggers run faster or longer because of the robot? And, maybe more importantly, will the jog be more engaging?”
We believe robots have been so far mainly investigated from a perspective where they do tasks for us we do not want to do: vacuuming floors, going into war zones, and cleaning up nuclear power plants.With Joggobot, we want to propose the idea of robots as companions for physical activity. We believe this is a promising approach, as both robots and exercise are embodied, by which we mean they are both heavily body-focused…This is important, as we know from sports research that social factors are key when it comes to exercising.
Whether Joggobot commercially takes off and becomes a training accessory for runners remains to be seen. But here are some other concerns and possible uses of the Joggobot:
1.) Will it carry water and food for you, so you won’t need to run with a fanny pack or fuel belt?
2.) Trail runners in Colorado and California might want to arm their Joggobot with small projectiles to act as protection against mountain lions.
3.) Will Joggobot be voice-activated like a Siri phone: “Hey, Joggobot, how far have we run and at what pace?” Or, “Joggobot, fly ahead to the nearest 7-Eleven and fetch me a cold beer.”
4.) Will we see the end of human rabbits in distance races?
5.) Or imagine elite runners all lining up at the start of a race with his or her own personal Joggobot. Race directors will need to hire a team of air-traffic controllers to maintain safety.
6.) For women running alone, the Joggobot can offer security with an alarm system.
7.) Sitting behind a bank of video consoles, a coach can monitor the gait and performance of any number of runners. In other words, the coach will never have to leave the office! And for the runner, it means your coach always has his or her eyes on you.
–Bill Katovsky