Robot Combat League, or Real Steel for Real

The SyFy Channel recently launched the new "Robot Combat League"; a new series featuring large, ~2m tall humanoid robots fighting against each other one on one (almost identical to the robots in the movie "Real Steel"). Each robot is controlled by two operators (one for the upper torso and and the other for the legs). Take a look at the teaser below to better understand the nature of this show. For those who worked with humanoid robots, you might be thinking: "how can these robots be stable and move at decent speeds? Why are they not just falling when they receive the first hit and how are they powered?" If you look carefully  you will notice a T-bar holding the robots (and also providing power) which prevent them from falling. Is this cheating? Maybe, but the support bars are quite concealed, and there are not that many ways of getting a humanoid of that size and weight (some are over 8 feet tall and over 800 pounds) to stand up reliably without technology from at least 5 years in the future. As shown in the video above, it is interesting to see that they chose participants from many different backgrounds including star-roboticists Heather Knight. Although they don't get to make their robots, they may have different approaches on how to control them, which makes for an interesting dynamic. What do you think about this show? Is it just a gimmick or do the robots have some credibility? Leave a comment with your thoughts. Via IEEE Automaton.