first Robot Olympics

During the 1990s the Turing Institute had been involved in a wide range of robotics activities and had developed links with many leading robotics laboratories as a result of both student exchange and a series of collaborative research projects.{{cite journal|last1=Lamb|first1=John|title=Making Friends with Intelligence|journal=New Scientist|date=1985-08-22|pages=30–32|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BMaVDEwRhpcC&q=%22turing+institute%22+%22new+scientist%22+%22alvey%22&pg=PA31|accessdate=8 November 2015}}

The event was conceived and directed by Dr Peter Mowforth, director of the Turing Institute, as an events-based meetup for robot enthusiasts and builders.{{cite news|title=Pete Mowforth With Lorraine Kelly|url=http://wn.com/pete_mowforth_with_lorraine_kellywmv|accessdate=8 November 2015|agency=World News Network|publisher=WN}}{{cite news|last1=LEWIS|first1=Alun|title=SCience Now|url=http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/s/sc/science_now.html|accessdate=8 November 2015|agency=Radio 4|issue=19901002|publisher=BBC|date=1990}} Although there had been single event competitions and national events for competing robots, this was the first time that such a large, varied and international Robot Competition had taken place.{{cite web|last1=Buckley|first1=David|title=1st Robot Olympics|url=http://davidbuckley.net/RS/History/Olympics90.htm|website=DavidBuckley|accessdate=8 November 2015}}

Many of the robots that came to the event reflected key research themes that were present at the time. For example, the two-wheeled balancing 'torch carrying' (pre-Segway) robot{{cite web|title=Trolleyman Lighting Olympic Flame|url=http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/344227/view|website=Science Photos|accessdate=8 November 2015}} that opened the event was associated with the institute's work on using machine learning applied to the inverted pendulum{{cite book|last1=McGee, Grimble and Mowforth|title=Knowledge-based Systems for Industrial Control|year=1990|publisher=P. Peregrinus Limited|isbn=978-0863412219|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I8RVq4jupeoC}}

Strathclyde University was an academic associate of and adjacent to the Turing Institute.{{cite web|title=Turing Institute|url=http://strathclyde.ica-atom.org/turing-institute|website=University of Strathclyde Archives|publisher=Strathclyde University|accessdate=8 November 2015}} The university made their sports hall complex available for the two-day event.

File:Champion Robot.png receiving the overall Robot Olympic Champion award from Lord Balfour of Burleigh.]]

class="wikitable"
Country	Gold (3 points)	Silver (2 points)	Bronze (1 Point)	Total
England	4	5	0	22
Scotland	2	4	2	16
USA	1	1	0	5
Japan	1	0	1	4
USSR	0	1	1	3
Canada	1	0	0	3
Yugoslavia	1	0	0	3
Wales	1	0	0	3
India	0	0	1	1
Mexico	0	0	0	0

File:Disqualified Robot.png

Four judges supervised the events to ensure 'fair play'. They were:

: • Professor Frank Nage, University of Salford

: • Professor Ruzena Bajcsy, University of Pennsylvania

: • Eddie Grant (IEEE Representative, University of Strathclyde){{cite web|last1=Grant|first1=Edie|title=Biography|url=http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/people/egrant|website=NCSU|publisher=NC State University|accessdate=8 November 2015}}

: • Professor Hans P. Moravec, Carnegie Mellon University{{cite web|last1=Moravec|first1=Hans|title=Biography|url=http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/hpm.cv.html|website=Carnegie Mellon University|publisher=CMU|accessdate=8 November 2015}}

class="wikitable"
Robot	Event	Reason for disqualification
YAMABICO, Japan	Talking	Could not speak English
SIAS, India	Talking	Completely incomprehensible
ROBUG II, England	Wall Climbing	Veering out of lane and demonstrating inappropriate behaviour in front of children.
MEXBOT, Mexico	Multi-Legged Race	Damaged during transportation. Dropped when offloaded from ship in UK.

File:prizes2.jpg

Several organisions provided special awards for different categories of competition.

IEEE Robotics & Automation Society Young Roboticist Award Brian Carr (School pupil), St Patricks High School, Coatbridge, Scotland. Awarded £25 book token.

NatWest Bank Prize for Technology Transfer Olaf Beck, Prof. Rodney Brookes & Colin Angle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT, AI Lab, USA Awarded with a Caithness Crystal bowl and £200 from NatWest Bank.

'Turing Institute Best School Prize' XYBOT Inverkeithing School, Class 7S, Scotland. Awarded with a cup and a cheque for £100.

'Olympic Champion' YAMABICO from Tsukuba University, Japan. Prize given to Shoji Suzuki. Awarded with a Caithness Glass Trophy.

{{Gallery

|width=160 | height=170

|align=center

|File:NELtorchbearer.jpg

|Torchbearer NEL carrying flame to Olympic Venue from Greek Restaurant.

|File:MITrobot.png

|Genghis from MIT. Olaf Beck, Rodney Brookes & Colin Angle.

|File:Cardiff Robot.png

|Biped Walker, University of Wales. Paul Channon & Simon Hopkins.

|File:ViewHall.jpg

|View from inside the Olympics sports hall at Strathclyde University.

|File:Canada Robot.jpg

|Gold medal winner Anthony Green with Asterix, Toronto Uni.

|File:Edinburgh Robot.jpg

|Scotland's Edinburgh University takes Gold in the multi-legged race.

|File:DrWho.png

|Dr Who (Sylvestor McCoy) opens the event with Sue Mowforth.

|File:flags2.jpg

|Olympic Flame (British Gas) & flags outside the Robot Olympics venue.

|File:Inverkeithing.png

|Inverkeithing Primary School win the Turing Institute Schools prize.

|File:JacksRobot.png

|Jack Todd's 'Penelope' eight legged Robot from University of Edinburgh.

|File:OrganiserRobotOlympics.png

|Event organisor Dr Peter Mowforth, Director, The Turing Institute.

|File:Multi-legged.jpg

|First heat for the Multi-legged race featuring TAG.

|File:Yamabico.png

|Yamabico from University of Tsukuba with Shoji Suzuki.

|File:Richard1st.png

|Richard 1st robot head commentator from The Turing Institute, Glasgow.

|File:Robot Olympics judging.jpg

|Olympic Judge, Professor Frank Nage discusses Genghis from MIT.

|File:Wall climbing second heat.png

| Wall Climbing Heat 2; RVG (Moscow) v ZigZag (Portsmouth).

|File:Robot builders.png

|Robot Builders with SIAS (Lucknow, India) in background.

|File:Hand robot.jpg

|Gold medal winner robotic hand from Belgrade University.

|File:Coatbridge Primary.jpg

|Brian Carr, St Patricks High, Coatbridge, Scotland.

}}

As well as being organised by The Turing Institute and hosted by the University of Strathclyde, the event had seven main sponsors:

• NatWest Bank (London){{cite web|title=NatWest bank's advertising robot|url=http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/344544/view|website=Science Photo|publisher=Science Photo Library|accessdate=8 November 2015}}
• IEEE (Robotics & Automation Society)
• Scottish Development Agency
• Stakis Hotels (Glasgow)
• Caithness Glass
• Holiday Inn (Glasgow)
• British Gas (Olympic Torch and Olympic flame)

{{reflist}}

Category:Robotics in the United Kingdom

Category:University of Strathclyde

Category:1990 in Scotland

Category:1990s in Glasgow