Communications of the ACM
Best Jobs at the Olympics: Robot
Robots help to make the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games a sanitary Games.
Credit: Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
Nominee: Field support robot
Where to find it: Track and field events, rugby events
Job description: Retrieve thrown items, speed along the grass, be functionally unobtrusive
Why this might be the best job at the Olympics: You have a very important role. As a field support robot, you are charged with retrieving hammers and javelins and other thrown objects during the field events. After a hammer thrower throws her hammer, you zoom out onto the hammer pitch, retrieve the spent hammer, and bring it back to the general vicinity of the hammer-throwing circle, where it will eventually be thrown again. You are an important part of the Circle of Life, Hammer Throwing Edition.
You are versatile! You don't just limit yourself to hammers and javelins: You also help out during the rugby events. You are the robotic equivalent of a multisport Olympic athlete, sort of like skater/baseball player Eddy Alvarez, or when Lolo Jones ran hurdles and then also decided to try out for the U.S. bobsled team. The Olympic cognoscenti, noting your similarity to the aforementioned athletes, will admiringly dub you "Eddy Jones," or perhaps "Lolo Alvarez." You will be flattered by the comparisons, but you will not let it go to your head, given that, as a non-humanoid robot, you do not actually have a head.
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