Carrying the Olympic Flame gives budding athletes the chance to be a part of the biggest sports competition in the world, but why should humans have all the glory? James Law, a computer scientist at Aberystwyth University has nominated a robot to be part of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay.
Law has suggested that the iCub robot, which is designed to learn from the world like a human toddler, should be given a chance to take part in the event as a tribute to legendary computer scientist Alan Turing. "2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alan Turing, the founder of computer science and a figurehead for the code breaking efforts of WWII," he said. "A robot torch bearer would be a fitting tribute to Alan Turing, and an inspiration to future generations of scientists and engineers."
The robot has been nominated through a scheme sponsored by Lloyds TSB, which has over 800 torch bearer slots available, but it seems that iCub fails to meet the minimum requirements as nominees must live in the UK and be aged 12 or over. As a toddler, iCub clearly fails the age requirement. And while the robot does indeed reside in the UK, it's not actually alive. That makes any robot a long shot for inclusion, at least for now. Maybe by the next time the Olympics come to London, it'll be a different story.
