Slashdot Mirror
Robocup 2002 World Robot Soccer Championships
dipfan writes "While the rest of the world is watching the soccer world championships in Korea and Japan this summer, at the same time the Robocup 2002 competition for soccer-playing robots is to take place there - the sixth time the tournament has been held, with 35 countries competing and this time including a "humanoid league" competition. The purpose is to foster research in robotics, with the aim of building a team of robots that can play and win against the best human teams by 2050. One of the pre-tournament favourites this year is Iran, who did well in 2000 but not in 2001. The Swedish team includes a star player named Priscilla, described as "looking like a sister of the Terminator". One of the Swedish designers comments: 'you don't want to give too much freedom to the robots as they will go crazy.' Much like flesh-and-blood highly-paid sports stars really."
While i was talking to this phillips guy, who worked on this project in his spare time, some weeks ago he gave a demonstration (showing some video) this was my first contact with this sport, but it looked very cool...although there not one of the favourites (yet) i think its nice to c what kinda work is being done.
And above what parts of this research can be used for other parts of lets say the medical industry etc.
Keep up the good work guys
My university, Carnegie Mellon, competes in this competition. We usually do very well, I think second last year or the year before. But if anyone would like to see a video of the action, here's one here. Very cool stuff.
Here are some pictures of Priscilla. That robot is scary looking. I wouldn't want to meet it (her?) on a soccer field or anywhere else.
Robots should be cute. Otherwise they remind us of the whole taking-over-the-world scenario.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
Two to three years ago, a team mounted a spinning blade in front of the robot. The ball bounced like a bullet whenver got in touch with the spinning blade. It upset many people. Not only because that is of little skill, but also may damage other people's robot... At the end, the design was banded for further matches.
True story from a lecturer that I know, who is a veteran robocup participant.
...I do my AI Masters Thesis for that guy (Peter) and some friends of mine have been working on Priscilla. He has an enormous talent for getting publicity on everything he does. The smaller robot, Elvis, has been on national TV and on posters on public transportation here in Gothenburg, among other things. Everytime he starts on a new project, he manages to make the press interested and write an article about it. Perhaps more scientists should look into PR?
Opinions stated are mine and do not reflect those of the Illuminati