Why Cyprus wants its robots to make mistakes

Cyprus’ young robot builders will arrive at European University Cyprus on September 19 knowing almost everything their machines must do. Then, shortly before the national competition begins, the organisers will change the rules without warning. This is not some unusually cruel approach to teaching. It is the “surprise rule” at the World Robot Olympiad, and teams will have only a limited time to alter their programming before sending their robots out again. Nor can the machines simply memorise the route. The field is rearranged for every round, which means they must make decisions while moving. That is usually the moment when a polished demonstration turns into a public disagreement with a wheel. The competition, organised by the Cyprus Computer Society under the auspices of the education ministry, is open to pupils aged eight to 19. Its official theme is “Robots Meet Culture”. The less official lesson is what happens when the world refuses to follow the instructions. There is no shortage of willing builders. In June, Robotex Cyprus brought 709 competitors in 216 teams to the University of Cyprus Sports Centre, where their machines entered mazes, sumo rings and athletic contests. A robot that takes the wrong turn in a school gym is funny. A humanoid sprinter that crosses the finishing line at frightening speed and then runs straight into the scenery is funnier still. Beijing provided plenty of both last month. The World Humanoid Robot Games assembled 2,056 robots for races, football, dancing, fighting and less glamorous tests based on jobs in factories, restaurants and emergency services. Tiangong Ultra completed 100 metres in 8.64 seconds, compared with Usain Bolt’s world record of 9.58 seconds. The two performances were not conducted under equivalent rules, but nobody watching could reasonably dismiss the robot as slow. Stopping proved more troublesome. Robots hit padded barriers, collapsed on the track and had to be collected by staff. One caught fire after a race. Reuters photographs showed machines sprawled on the floor, missing pieces or being approached with a fire extinguisher. Years of engineering went into the successful runs. The failures were what people sent to their friends. Part of the pleasure comes from the human shape. We know what running, lifting and keeping one’s balance should look like. When a robot’s arms begin to windmill before it falls over, the performance has the timing of silent-film comedy. Nobody is hurt, the machine feels no embarrassment and the tireless future suddenly needs two technicians and a stretcher. Scientists have tried to work out whether such failures make robots more appealing. A Frontiers study found that people liked a small humanoid robot more when it made harmless mistakes. Trust is another matter. In research published this summer, Pepper, a conversational robot, lost more than half its influence over people’s decisions after it began making errors. According to Drexel University, the version that made eye contact and gestured was judged even more harshly when it got things wrong. Apparently, charm raises expectations for machines too. That gap between an entertaining mistake and an expensive one runs through the robotics work now taking place in Cyprus. At AUB Mediterraneo in Paphos, the Intelligent Robotics and Interaction Lab is developing a robotic arm for warehouses. It is deliberately human-guided, with an augmented-reality interface allowing a person to intervene when an object or shelf proves awkward. The €100,000 project, financed through the Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF), continues until 2027. The same lab has started testing robots for construction sites. Digital building plans are combined with aerial and ground robots which inspect the work and look for departures from the design. Among the equipment is a Unitree Go2 robot dog, a machine whose four legs may look amusing until it is searching a site for a defect that would otherwise be found months later. In Nicosia, the work becomes more serious. The KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence at the University of Cyprus uses drones, sensors and robotics for emergency response. Its researchers work on mapping burned or flooded land, recognising objects in aerial images, inspecting power lines and coordinating groups of drones over an affected area. These machines may have to fly through smoke, work without a dependable satellite signal or keep going when communications are poor. Engineers need to see those failures during testing, before a firefighter begins relying on the pictures coming back. KIOS is also part of a European project announced in July which brings aerial and underwater vehicles together for maritime operations. At Cyens excellence centre in central Nicosia, researchers are studying machines that acquire and reuse skills, using robot dogs, mobile platforms and mechanical arms for practical testing. Head east to Larnaca and the robots lose dry land altogether. The Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI) works with surface vessels, underwater vehicles, ground machines and drones for search and rescue, inspection, aquaculture and ocean research. At Ayia Napa Marina last year, a Franco-Cypriot project demonstrated a swarm of small underwater vehicles designed to recharge at docking stations inside artificial reefs. Their proposed job was to photograph the seabed and monitor marine life. The public project page has not confirmed that the full system is operating in 2026, which is worth noting when prototype videos can make the future look conveniently finished. Then there is the robot already serving coffee at Nicosia General Hospital. Since July, its mechanical arm has ground beans, poured drinks and accepted card payments at all hours. During a first-hand test, it completed the order, although slowly enough, and with a disappointing enough coffee, to test the customer’s enthusiasm. That is the difficulty for robots once the applause dies down. We forgive the school entry that misses a turn and laugh when the expensive sprinter meets a wall. We are less generous when the machine is checking a building, searching a fire zone, swimming beside a protected reef or charging us for an espresso. On September 19, there will be cheers for the clean runs in Nicosia and laughter when a robot does something ridiculous. The important work will happen afterwards, when the pupils gather around it, work out what went wrong and send it back for another try. For Cyprus’ future warehouse workers, construction inspectors, rescue teams and underwater explorers, that is a useful place to begin.