Camel racing: robots win the day
Learning from a very interesting robotization case
I first heard about camel racing many years ago, but it was only during a recent trip to Dubai that I had the opportunity to witness the so-called sport of the sheikhs’ first hand. My interest was further piqued by the discovery that this fascinating and traditional competition has undergone a transition in recent years—starting in Qatar and Dubai, but now widely accepted throughout the wider, and more conservative, Arab world—whereby child jockeys have been replaced by robots.
The key to success in camel racing, where the animals can reach speeds of up to 65 kilometers an hour, is reducing the weight of riders, which had led to appalling child exploitation: thousands of children, many of them aged under four, were used as jockeys in a trade that bordered on slavery, and who were subjected to malnutrition to keep their weight down. The children lived in camps near the race tracks, in isolation, and were moved around from event to event along with the animals they rode, until such time as they suffered an accident or were deemed too old or too heavy, when they would simply be discarded. Falls were common, often producing serious injury and sometimes death. Deprived of the most elementary education, some children were unable even to speak.
International outcry over the treatment of these child jockeys eventually led Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to ban the use of riders aged under 15 and weighing less than 45 kilograms in 2002. At the same time, the UAE compensated almost a thousand former jockeys for their injuries, while tough jail terms and other sanctions were dictated for those who continued to use child riders.
In the run up to the ban, in 2001, Qatar begin developing robot jockeys. Two years later, the first competition was held using a prototype created by Swiss company K-Team under the auspices of the Qatar Scientific Club. Further research and development was needed: the camels were used to carrying human riders, and the robots initially confused or frightened them. In response, the robots were fitted with faces, hats, sunglasses, silk uniforms, and even perfumes.
The current prototypes, now made locally, weigh between two and three kilograms, a vast improvement on the Swiss team’s early models, which came in at 27 kilograms, and are now designed to better handle the camels’ irregular movements, as well as the dry and dusty desert environment. Two interesting articles from 2005 in Wired and The Guardian discuss developments under way at that time. The robots are now made of aluminum, with a head and thorax about the size of a hardback book, and have two small arms, one of which controls the whip, and that can be used to beat the animal in different places on its body, depending on the kind of hump it has, while the other holds the reins. The robot jockey is fitted with a GPS that transmits the speed the camel is travelling at, along with another sensor that provides information on the camel’s heart rate. This brief Vine video shows the camels and their robot riders in action.
Around the edge of the track can be seen the vehicles where the operators are seated, from where they can monitor the camels’ progress. Rapid technological change has allowed for ever-smaller and lighter jockeys, which in turn have increased the speed of the camels, resulting in rapid acceptance of robots in other Arab countries, despite the sport’s deep roots in traditional society.
As a result, the use of child jockeys has all but disappeared in the Arab world. Needless to say, this process has been helped by a willingness to end child exploitation there, as well as a desire to project a more modern image. We are talking here about a win-win situation. Leaving aside the evident benefits of ending the practice of using children, it is fascinating to be able to chart this process of robotization over such a short period—a decade—, from initial reticence, along with the impact of legislation banning child riders, expectations when the first robots appeared, etc., up to the present day, when nobody wants to return to the old practices, and where technology is now seen by everybody involved as the best way to preserve the traditional sport of their grandfathers.
At the end of 2012, a three-minute short directed by James Rawson that made it to the final stages of the FOCUS FORWARD Filmmaker Competition provides an excellent overview of the adoption process.
Without doubt, this is a fascinating substitution process, and not the last by any means. At the same time, we cannot expect others to meet so little resistance, nor produce such satisfactory results.
(En español, aquí)
