Yamaha Motobot concept Ver 1 (4)

On display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was Yamaha’s Motobot Ver.1. Based on the theme, “Beyond Human Capabilities”, the Motobot is a robot that rides a stock-standard Yamaha R1-M.

Except for the crash bars on the R1-M, which we assume is more to protect the robot’s technology than the bike, the machine was unveiled in October last year. Yamaha’s intention is for the Motobot to be better at racing than human racers. No, that is not a typo, Yamaha is developing the Motobot to race in 2017.

They’ve set themselves a lofty target too, which is to beat Valentino Rossi’s lap time at an unspecified track. From the video below, it appears that Yamaha have created a specialised robot that is configured to do one task perfectly, ride a motorcycle.

As a technology concept, the Motobot is an interesting development, especially in the field of safety. Humanoid robots can be used to safely test ergonomics and crash testing in real-world conditions, as opposed to static crash test dummies.