In pictures: Meet the droids who race camels

Each year camels, falcons and horses gather near Liwa in the UAE for the annual Moreeb Dune Festival (AFP)

Here a handler prepares camels on the starting line: not the small robot riders attached to the saddles of the camels (AFP)

In 2002 the UAE became the first country to ban the use of children as camel jockeys. Since then robot riders have become common (AFP)

Aside from camel competitions, other sports at the festival include horse racing, which still feature human jockeys rather than their robotic equivalents (AFP)

Entries for this race were restricted to purebred Arab horses at the race track, 250 kilometres west of Abu Dhabi (AFP)

An Emirati looks at his phone as he leads his Arab horse during the Liwa 2014 Moreeb Dune Festival in January 2014, close to the border with Saudi Arabia (AFP)

Falconry – which can be traced back nearly 3,000 years to Nineveh and Babylon – also attracts keen interest at the festival. The UAE numbers some of the most competitive falconers in the world – and features a falcon on its crest (AFP)

Here a falcon takes down a bustard: falconers are increasingly using drones for their falcons to chase rather than live birds (AFP)

The festival also attracts cars, motor bikes and other vehicles, which plough across the 300-metre high Moreeb Dune (“terrifying mountain”)  - but for many visitors, the natural world of the region is the biggest draw (AFP)