Self Defense Technologies, Inc. is claiming to have produced a robotic sparring partner, the Fighting Android FA1. They offer claims that this is safer, as if too much force or resistance is detected, the android will scale back. The idea is that one would be able to spar while reducing chances of injury associated with traditional training techniques.

Needless to say, I’m a little skeptical, as I have my doubts about the technology maturing enough to be useful. I’d be interested to see how this actually plays out for training. While they offer a solution that helps prevent or reduce the injuries that may occur when sparring against a live opponent, I doubt that this training would be able to replace a live opponent (nor, I should mention, do they say it should). A Wing Chun dummy, for instance, is a great aid, but doesn’t hold a candle to actually training with a live person.

Nonetheless, it’s interesting to see how technology is working its way into martial arts. If this android really can offer a decent sparring experience, I’d like to see two androids pitted against each other — now that would be an intriguing demonstration.