Without the NHL’s participation in the Winter Olympics and the lack of recognizable names, the anticipation surrounding the event is lacking.

South Korea may have turned it all around with this insane move of having a robot handoff the Olympic torch. Not only did it hand off the torch, it also cut down a wall to hand it off.

Don’t pay any attention to the two humans that help stabilize the robot after it nearly falls over. The story here is the insanity of the robot getting this honor.

For those wondering why this robot was selected, it is one of 85 robots that will help around the Olympics. Their duties include trash pick-up, security and mural painting. Yes, mural painting.

HUBO, the humanoid robot drove Professor Dennis Hong, founding director of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at UCLA to the spot for the hand-off. Then Professor Oh Jun-ho, the creator of HUBO takes the flame from his creation on the other side of the wall. Professor Oh developed the robot at Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon, where the handoff occurred.

This scene is wild and it is nice that South Korea gets an opportunity to show off its advances but next time get an all-robot Olympic torch relay. That would strike fear into the hearts of rival nations and set a high standard for others to follow.

Just a suggestion.

[The Verge]

About Sam Blazer

Sam is a self proclaimed chess prodigy. He once placed seventh in the state of Ohio in Chess when he was in kindergarten. He will rarely if ever mention though that only eight people were entered in this tournament. Contact him at sblaze17@gmail.com