Skiing robot created by scientists can navigate slalom courses

A team of scientistsfrom Slovakia has created a skiing robot capable of navigating slalomcourses.

According to a report in the Telegraph, the robot, around the size of an eight-year-old child, can scoot down a snow-covered hill on a couple of practice runs before taking on a giant slalom course.

It uses a pair of computer systems, one attached to cameras and dedicated to plotting a course down the slope, and one attached to gyroscopes and force sensors which keeps the robot stabilized.

It uses ordinary skis, which Bojan Nemec of the Jozef Stefan Institute bought from a local ski shop.

Nemec doubts that the machine will be able to compete seriously in an actual downhill race against humans any time soon, or to act as a robotic ski instructor.

However, it will be useful for testing ski equipment or modelling skiing for virtual reality systems.

As yet, it is still at an early stage.