Jockeys hand over whips to robots

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   Jockeys hand over whips to robots 

By Rania Habib, Staff Reporter

Abu Dhabi: Robots are taking over human jobs everyday, and the traditional camel racing business is no longer any different. 

Last year's long-awaited move to replace illegal underage camel jockeys in the UAE has finally come to fruition camel races are now fully automated, and definitely make for a peculiar sight.

The robot jockeys that were introduced last year were modelled after the human form, but the scene is even more unusual this time around at the Al Wathba camel racetrack. The robots are now merely half a metre high and look nothing like a human being, but more like a box with a dangling whip, decorated to suit the owner's taste and strapped tightly onto the camel's back.

"The human-looking robot jockeys, which first came out last year, weighed around eight kilos, so the weight affected the race," says Hassan, a robot jockey maker who sells his goods at the races. "People want lighter robots, which are better, so we make them smaller and smaller."

The robots Hassan displayed at the race weighed a mere two and a half kilos and were fashioned from an electric drill. With part of the drill cut off, a whip is attached to the spinning head. The end result is in turn controlled through a wireless network, where the controller uses a walkie-talkie to operate the robot.

The network range varies from eight to 20 kilometres, so the controller can operate the jockey from his car alongside the racetrack. 

The controller breathes into the walkie-talkie to activate the whipping mechanism. "The speed of whipping varies from low to medium and high," said Hassan. But most people don't use the very high speeds; they care about their camel, it's like a child to them."

While the idea of robot jockeys was not necessarily well received when it was first introduced, camel owner Salem Bin Ali Al Ghelani says they are now very popular, thanks to their light weight, safety and speed. "The robot jockeys are 100% better than humans," says Al Ghelani. 

He also says that a camel's performance does not suffer from a lack of interaction with a human jockey. "In fact, the robot is better," he said.

With 15 of his prized camels competing in the race, Mutlaq Mohammad sees a huge difference between human jockeys and robot jockeys. "There's no need to worry about loss of life with robot jockeys," he says. "With a robot, your mind is at ease because you don't need to worry about the jockey who's riding the camel."