Robots in sport: a brief history

1930 The golf teacher Long-forgotten 1930s golf comedy Love In The Rough posits the idea of a robot teacher that helps the characters improve their swing. The idea lies dormant until fiction (sort of) becomes fact 70 years later, when Nike develop a robot arm, in 2000, to test its new clubs. 1956 Robot footballers German inventor Josef Pachta's "robot footballers" are launched to aid practice sessions by simulating opposition players. Whether Pachta's "footballers" really count as robots is debatable: containing no mechanical parts, the weighted inflatable cylinders simply wobble in the breeze, providing a mild distraction. 1981 The snooker player "Hissing Sid", a mechanical pill-tickler that was supposed to be able to play snooker, debuts on Tomorrow's World – and completely blows it, breaking down on live television and leaving an embarrassed BBC host to fill a ruined segment. 1997 More robot footballers Nagoya, Japan hosts the first ever RoboCup, a football tournament open only to machines. The stated and truly frightening aim of the tournament – which still runs annually – is to develop a team of 11 footballing robots by 2050 that might beat the human World Cup winners. 2004 The cheque handler Ernie Els wins the Sony Open in Hawaii in 2004, and has his winner's cheque presented to him by the electronics company's latest prototype robot, nicknamed Qrio. Els goes on to come second in the Masters, while Qrio plays a starring role at 2004's RoboCup, showing off his football skills as well as the ability to climb stairs. 2007 The ping-pong player At a Tokyo robot fair, Vietnamese robotics firm unveil "Topio", a 6ft 2in robot that can play table tennis against humans. It can play but it can't yet win; Topio misses most of its shots.