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RoboCup 2001 Underway

Posted by timothy on from the take-photos- dept.

Dan B writes: "RoboCup 2001, the fifth international competition, is underway. The competition is held from August 2nd through the 10th at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, USA. International teams compete their autonomous soccer-playing robots in three different leagues including Sony Legged League (remember the cute puppies?). The competition is open to the public, so if you happen to be near Seattle, check it out."

2 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Comercialization has destroyed events like these by hillct · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I remember a time (I feel so old...) when these types of events were held at MIT and CalTech but that was about it; when they were entered by teams of grad students who were all engrosed in the technolohical advancement of the machines.

    Now there are TV shows like 'Robot Wars' on Comedy Central, and some similar program on the Learning Channel, which make a mockery of these sorts of events, allowing, entry of remote controlled devices rather than robots, and commented on by outragously dressed characcatures of human beings that you'd evpect to see on 'WWF Smackdown!'.

    It's good to see that some of these competitions have remained pure durring this time of rampent commercialization.

    --CTH

    --

    --Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
  2. Re:Comercialization has destroyed events like thes by drc500free · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Yes - as part of the intellectual elite, I feel that we shoult keep competitions of this nature to the top 1% of the academic world, and not share with anyone who we deem to be culturally and intellectually inferior to us. After all, if someone spent a year building a BattleBot in his basement with his son, it's absolutely useless if he doesn't have the knowledge to put A.I. in it. The purpose of events like this is to share the ideas and knowledge. True, these shows glam it up with crazy announcers, but that's just like coating some bitter tasting medicine.

    The average American wouldn't want to watch this stuff if it was billed as academic, but if they are tricked into actually enjoying it, the field gets more attention.