The Joggobot has the potential to change much about the way we exercise. At the moment, it’s a relatively simple device — just a quadrotor UAS that keeps up with you on your runs.
The robot is tethered to your smartphone, which you use to tell the device how high off the ground it should float. And then, you just go. The robot follows you by focusing on a special T-shirt you wear marked with orange and blue squares. It operates under two modes: a companion mode that automatically adjusts its speed according to the runner’s pace, and a coaching mode that challenges the runner by pulling ahead just so slightly.
Joggobot is a research project from the Exertion Games Lab that explores how joggers will enjoy jogging with flying robots as companions in order to make the exercise activity more engaging, drawing from computer game ideas.
There’s nothing really revolutionary about the technology in its current form. But combined with evolutions in mobile hardware and software, it’s not hard to see what the future of exercise might look like.
If you’ve tried working out with your phone, you’ve likely come across apps like Runkeeper, a kind of cross between a social network and a personal fitness log. Many of these programmes can keep a map of your routes, record how fast and far you’ve travelled, any changes in elevation you’ve made, and other data about your exercise history. It’s mesmerizing to track all these indicators over time, but you’re often left in the dark about how you’re improving and, more importantly, what more you can do.
Training bots can also put into practice what we’ve learned about music’s effect on exercise. Research shows that listening to music while working out forestalls feelings of fatigue, heightens our motivation, and makes our bodies operate more efficiently. Future Joggobots could choose the right songs in our libraries to keep us going.
That’s not all. Imagine you’re training for a marathon. You tell your drone how long you’ve got until the big day, and the device not only comes up with a months-long training regimen where it plans a different workout for each day — a half-hour jog on Monday, hills on Tuesday — but it works with you to execute the plan. On a tempo run where you alternate between sprinting and jogging, the drone that’s following you will tell you when to pick it up and when to relax. And to pull you along, it’ll accelerate to the appropriate pace.
The applications for a smart trainer-drone aren’t limited to running. Cyclists, swimmers, even soldiers could make use of such a machine. Load it up with data about the perfect tennis or golf swing, and you suddenly have a multi-talented coach that fits in a backpack.
Source: The Atlantic