Sunday, June 30, 2013

Move over, Messi: Israel, Iran to vie in robot soccer event

FIFA this ain't.
From the AP via Times of Israel:

Some 300 teams take part in a competition aiming to field a team of cyborgs that can beat humans by 2050
Robots in the 'standard platform' division compete at the RoboCup championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on June 27, 2013.  (photo credit: AP/Toby Sterling)
Robots in the 'standard platform' division compete at the RoboCup championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on June 27, 2013. (photo credit: AP/Toby Sterling)
 EINDHOVEN, Netherlands (AP) — With the score tied 1-1, it’s gone to a penalty shootout in a tense soccer match between teams from Israel and Australia.
 
As the Australian goalkeeper in his red jersey braces for the shot, the Israeli striker pauses. Then he breaks into a dance instead of kicking the ball. 

Perhaps he can be forgiven: He’s a robot, after all.

Welcome to the RoboCup, where more than a thousand soccer-playing robots from forty countries have descended on the Dutch technology Mecca of Eindhoven this week with one goal in mind: beat the humans.
Eventually.

The tournament’s mission is to defeat the human World Cup winners by 2050 — creating technology along the way that will have applications far beyond the realm of sport.

To achieve the goal, organizers have created multiple competition classes — including small robots, large robots, humanoid robots and even virtual robots — with plans to merge their techniques into a single squad of all-star androids capable of one day winning a man vs. machine matchup.

For now, Lionel Messi doesn’t need to look over his shoulder. Humanoid robots have difficulty keeping their balance, and the largest — human height — move more like, well, robots than world-class athletes.

“To be honest, I think a 3-year-old could win against any of the humanoid teams,” says Marcell Missura of the University of Bonn, whose NimbRO team won the “teen” humanoid class in Mexico City last year.
NimbRO’s 3-foot (120 centimeter) striker sports a shock of white hair and a flashy pink bandanna as it towers above a Japanese opponent in one match. That’s because the Japanese player doesn’t have a head, just a prong with a camera mounted on top....MORE
Previously: 
Finally, a video preview of the level of athleticism which will be exhibited and, beyond the athletics, a display of the central ethos of sport or, swiping a line from "Robot Soccer Goes Big Time":
A hilarious and terrifying vision of our sporting future....