If one goes by the IPL fan polls, the robo-dog that you have been seeing strolling across the field could be christened ‘Champak’.
Nearly 80% of the fans who voted preferred this option over ‘Buddy’, ‘Jaffa’ or ‘Chulbul’! Where did ‘Champak’ come from and what does it plan to do beyond grabbing attention?
The AI-powered quadruped is powered with microphones and cameras that add new dimensions and perspectives to the much-loved IPL.
Based on a cursory glance, it appears to be a version of ‘Spot’, the agile mobile, robot-dog that was developed by the Boston Dynamics.
The core purpose of this autonomous vehicle is to combine agility, intelligence and rugged durability, to be a companion to the workforce, by being a dynamic sensing platform that provides valuable insights into routine operations, site health, or potentially hazardous situations!
The ‘Spot’ has 360-degree perception and athletic intelligence; is easy to use and intuitive to learn, thus making it quick to deploy for both manual and autonomous missions.
Whilst currently we see only one ‘Champak’ walking around the field, eventually, the IPL could choose to deploy a fleet of them and they can be controlled from a command centre, hundreds of miles away.
Most importantly, the robo-dog is reliable due to its in-built intelligence to navigate, walk around obstacles, auto-charge and can even get up on its own if it falls by any chance.
When commentator and former New Zealand player Danny Morrison officially introduced him before the Delhi Capitals-Mumbai Indians game on April 13, he demonstrated its ability to run, jump and respond to various voice commands and even draw a heart shaped with its front legs.
The quadruped can carry a payload of about 14 kilos and the IPL version has multiple cameras mounted and bolted on it, to provide dynamic, on-ground visuals from a dog’s eye view, bringing fans closer to the action. This allows the broadcast team to offer new and engaging perspectives to the 600 million fans, enjoying the match on television or via OTT apps.
Whilst one isn’t sure of all the use cases that the IPL will deploy with ‘Champak’, here are some useful sports-linked applications where the Spot machine can be deployed for, across data collection, entertainment, and as a part of team support.
With numerous sensors around its torso, Spot can collect, analyse and visualise various data points for tournament organisers and franchises around player performance, movements, field set-up angles, pitch conditions as well as weather and environmental conditions.
Whilst the robo-dog can jump, move and dance itself or as part of a larger fleet to entertain the crowd (remember synchronised drones?), it can be allowed to go out and interact with fans during timeouts and breaks. It can also provide high-quality images and video footages that can be uploaded on social media by itself real time!
Very soon you might see a ‘Champak’ be the ‘twelfth wo(man)’ in the team and step out to carry drinks with some tactical inputs based on its analytics?
Or, on a bad day, maybe a fleet of robo-dogs are used to carry injured players out on their collective backs, whilst measuring player’s health parameters before a physiotherapist or doctor checks on him?
Maybe some of them could become personal compatriots of players —carrying their kitbags to giving them catch practice to potentially being their mental health coaches as well.
Till then, keep a look out for ‘Champak’ on your screen or on the field and hope it entertains the child in us, just like the namesake comic did when we were growing up!