5 new sports that seemed fantastic yesterday

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Drone races, lightsaber fencing and cyborg competitions.

1. Fighting giant robots

The creators of science fiction films and computer games have long shown us what the competition of giant robots can look like. But recently, machine combat has moved from screens to reality.

Two companies are simultaneously developing manned robots for sports: the Japanese Suidobashi Heavy Industry and the American MegaBots. In 2017, they fought a showdown between the metal giants. In the first duel, the Iron Glory robot took the side of the United States, and the Kuratas robot represented Japan. The fight lasted only a few seconds: Kuratas accelerated and knocked his opponent down with a powerful pincer blow to the chest. In the second battle, the Japanese robot fought with another American development - the Eagle Prime model. And this fight turned out to be much more spectacular: the competitors fired cannons, dropped cars on each other and used chainsaws to attack. This time the MegaBots team won the fight.

The companies are now developing new machines and hope that in the future, entire stadiums will watch the battles of giant robots.

2. Drone racing

Another sport that exists now, but may become more popular in the future. The concept of the competition is simple: drones rush to the finish line at a speed of over 100 km / h, simultaneously overcoming various obstacles. At the same time, people control the flight: they control drones using remote controls. To go around all the obstacles and bring his ward to the finish line first, the athlete must feel the dimensions of the drone as accurately as possible and have a fantastic reaction speed.

Drone races can be seen live in many cities around the world. The Dron Champions League competitions are considered the largest today - they include individual and team “races”. Moscow also hosts annual competitions as part of the Rostec Drone Festival. With the development of technology, they become more and more spectacular.

3. Fencing with lightsabers

So far, watching battles with real lightsabers will only work in films, but this may soon change thanks to scientists from MIT and Harvard.

While working on the creation of a quantum computer, they discovered a new way for photons to interact. When two or more particles pass through the rubidium cloud and cool down to almost absolute zero, they "stick together". If there are a lot of photons, it turns out something like a lightsaber from "Star Wars". This phenomenon requires study, but, perhaps, in the future, in fencing, instead of swords, a completely different weapon will be used. Spectators for such fights will definitely be found, at least - among fans of the epic film. Until then, they will have to watch staged fights using ordinary glowing swords.

4. Competitions of cyborgs

Athletes with prostheses are already participating in sports competitions and achieving impressive results. For example, from birth, there is no left arm below the elbow - it is replaced by a prosthesis. Despite this, the athlete achieved success in professional tennis and was included in the ATP rating in 2017.

Prosthetics technologies are constantly being improved, models appear that surpass human limbs in strength and other parameters. In 2016, a championship for people with bionic prostheses was held in Switzerland. The participants were divided into six categories depending on the technologies used: neurocomputer interface, functional electrical stimulation, hand prostheses, leg prostheses, wheelchair and exoskeleton competitions. The next tournament is scheduled for September 2020.

It is possible that healthy athletes will start using body modifications in the future. It's just not clear who, in this case, should get the laurels of the winners: athletes or developers.

5. Football in zero gravity

This is the only sport in our selection, which, most likely, will always have to be watched from the computer screen, and not from the stadium tribune. It is not known how far technology will go in the future, though.

Until a person has mastered other planets, and space flight is too expensive, you can play football in zero gravity on Earth. Zero Gravity conducts amateur fights aboard a modified Boeing 727 aircraft. Now they are not much like traditional football matches, but the corporation director is confident that space sports has a great future. He suggests that in zero gravity it will also be possible to arrange wrestling and gymnastics tournaments.