Humanlike robot will be one of London Olympics torchbearers

PanARMENIAN.Net - In addition to the Olympic rings, the Olympic Torch is one of the most well-known symbols of the Olympic Games.

The torch commemorates the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, and each of the Games holds its own Torch Relay to transport the flame from Greece to the host country. Eight thousand “inspirational torchbearers” will carry the flame during the Olympic Torch Relay. However, one man is gunning to make it 7,999 torch-bearing people and one torch-bearing robot, Geek.com reports.

The flame will be lit in Greece and will arrive in the UK on May 18, 2012 to begin the 70-day journey that will culminate at the Opening Ceremonies on July 27. Eight thousand people will be chosen to carry the Olympic Flame during the Torch Relay.

James Law, Computer Scientist at Aberystwyth University, is nominating the iCub robot to be one of the many torchbearers for London 2012.The iCub was built to learn from real-world activities just like a toddler does.

The 100th anniversary of the birth of the founder of computer science, Alan Turing, happens to coincide with the Olympics, and having the iCub as one of the torchbearers would be a “fitting tribute to Alan Turing, and an inspiration to future generations of scientists and engineers,” Law said.

However, the robot doesn’t seem to meet most of the requirements which say the torchbearer must be at least 12 years old, and needs to be a resident in, and have a registered address within, the UK.

Each leg of the journey is just 0.2 miles, so we’re pretty sure the robot would be capable walking or running that distance.

The actual torch itself was designed with 8,000 perforated circles to represent the 8,000 torchbearers. It’s made up of an inner and an outer aluminum alloy skin.