Are Androids the Future of Ultimate Fighting?

October 17, 2011

The new sci-fi action flick Real Steel, which is kind of a mash-up of the Rocky films and I, Robot, seems to be getting decidedly mixed reviews, which doesn't surprise me. IMHO, casting Hugh Jackman in a movie -- any movie -- and not equipping him with titanium claws and lush prosthetic sideburns is a grave mistake. But beyond that, as anybody who's seen Science Channel's Killer Robots already knows, the concept of two robots fighting each other has been around for a while. Sure, there was a time when the brutal clash of machine against machine seemed like the ultimate metaphor for a technologically advanced but spiritually depraved dystopia. But that's so over that these days, as this recent NPR story details, high school science students are being encouraged to build robotic warriors and pit them against one another as a way to develop skills that may be useful in high-tech manufacturing. Here's a video clip from a similar competition in Japan.

OK, I admit, I did like the fighting penguin, the balloon head and the robot with the fright wig that did a little breakdancing exhibition to warm up. All in all, though, robot versus robot seems even less satisfying than watching Floyd Mayweather Jr. knock out an opponent who had his guard down while trying to apologize for a head butt.

To me, this whole robot fighting concept desperately needs something to give it some sense of panache. Where's the drama? Where's the tension? Where's the humanity? I'm just kidding about that last part. Or, on second thought, maybe I shouldn't be. I doubt that many fans go to see human professional combat sports -- be it boxing or mixed martial arts -- because they're fascinated with Mayweather's mastery of the Philly shoulder roll technique or with whether or not Muay Thai kicks are superior to their karate counterparts. What they really want to see are two larger-than-life personalities tangling in a contest to see whose will is stronger. They don't want real steel. They want flesh and blood.

Divabot in the Ring

So here's my idea. Instead of the metallic, obviously mechanical combatants who turn a confrontation into something resembling a demolition derby, what if robot fighting featured next-generation, highly anthropomorphic machines with advanced artificial intelligence capabilities? Back in 2009, I wrote in this blog post about the pros and cons of lifelike androids such as Japanese robotics expert Hiroshi Ishigaro's Geminoid, a remote- controlled replica of himself. According to Androidworld.com, a website that tracks the emerging field, there are currently more than 170 android development projects under way across the globe. Researchers have pushed android capabilities even further. This 2010 British newspaper article describes HRP-4C, the so-called Divabot that not only sings but is capable of two-stepping and swaying at least as adeptly as some of the celebrity contestants on Dancing With the Stars.

One U.S. company, Virginia-based Self Defense Technologies, has already developed the FA1 Fighting Android, a lifelike robotic sparring partner for human boxers. FA1 can be programmed to throw a variety of punches with either hand, and it's designed to take as well as it gives. When FA1 is tagged with a punch, sensors built into the device's chest, face, arms and rib cage tally successful punches and the amount of force behind each of them.

If we already have a talking human lookalike, a dancing android and another that can punch someone in the face, I figure that we can't be too far from merging all of these capabilities into a single machine. In the future, I'm envisioning a fighting machine that's virtually indistinguishable from a human fighter, except that it isn't vulnerable to head trauma, being ripped off by shady managers or the indignity of doing deodorant commercials to supplement its income.

Chuck Norris-bot vs. Bruce Lee-bot

Better yet, these battling androids could be fashioned as doppelgangers of real-life famous boxers and martial artists. Instead of sparring with Chuck Norris in an Android app, wouldn't it be more thrilling to watch a Chuck Norris android trade punches and kicks with an electronic clone of Bruce Lee? (I'm guessing that just like their classic fight scene in Way of the Dragon, Lee would come out on top.) Or maybe android versions of Rocky Marciano and Mike Tyson in his prime could determine the hardest puncher in the history of boxing. For that matter, we could even pit a replica of ancient Spartan King Leonidas against famed Internet backyard-brawler Kimbo Slice.

So what do you think? Is this idea a contender or what? Express your opinion below.

Image Credit: Ursula Düren/dpa/Corbis | Self Defense Technologies, Inc. |