Pyeongchang hosts the world's first robot ski tournament

South Korea hosted the world's first robot ski tournament. Photo / Getty

Pyeongchang hosted the worlds first ski tournament for robots in alignment with the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

While the worlds top athletes contested the fourth day of the Games, eight university robotics teams and one privately owned company contested for a $10,000 prize in a robot ski competition.

The bizarre "Edge of Robot" ski tournament took place at the Welli Hilli ski resort, situated on a nearby mountain from the Olympic venues.

"Our robots cannot race in the Olympics so we organised this race in the Olympic period so that we can show South Korea's robotic technology to the world," a spokesman said.

Each robotics team had to abide by specific guidelines and regulations when developing their robots to ensure they were fit to ski the slopes.

Robots brush up on their slalom skills ahead of world's first ski robot challenge in South Korea pic.twitter.com/B9E1pAYKA3

— Ruptly (@Ruptly) February 12, 2018

Could Robot Olympics be next?#robotskichallenge #PyeongChang2018 #Robotics #futureology https://t.co/WRtd547rNh

— Natalie Jaafar (@Natalie_Tech) February 13, 2018

Each robot had to be taller than 50cm, stand on "two legs", and have joints that "resembled elbows and knees".

The robots had to be able to properly use their skis and poles with independent power systems.

Director of sales at Mini Robot Corporations told Korea Herald that it took "21 motors to programme the robots to imitate human movement".

Camera sensors were also fitted onto the robots to allow them to "see" the blue and red flagpoles they had to ski around.

The tournament was part of a campaign by South Korea's Ministry of Trade to showcase the country's robotic capabilities.

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