 Robots, designed in Switzerland, riding camels in the Arabian desert. Camel jockey robots, about 2 feet high, with a right hand to bear the whip and a left hand to pull the reins. Thirty-five pounds of aluminum and plastic, a 400-MHz processor running Linux and communicating at 2.4 GHz; GPS-enabled, heart rate-monitoring (the camel’s heart, that is) robots.
And the other half of the story: Every robot camel jockey bopping along on its improbable mount means one Sudanese boy freed from slavery and sent home.
 The robots weren’t the easiest to make, not only did they have to be as light as the starved children they replaced, but they also had to be robust enough to handle camel rides at 25 MPH and the 112-degree heat, luckily, with the help of a patient camel named Hanoud, the Swiss team overcame. So props to Qatar for solving their problem with robots, and we’re very happy they can get their camel racing on without upsetting the US government, but according to the article the newly emancipated children are merely being sent back to their homes and an uncertain future in the Sudan and elsewhere—hardly an improvement in their situation—so no points for actually helping out the kids.
After a hard year of endless soccer games and dancing sessions, robots are giving back to the community with the difficult new task of… camel jockey.
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