Slashdot Mirror
AIBO Robot Dog Soccer Competition
BrianWCarver writes "The Washington Post has an article about teams of college students who program Sony AIBO Robotic Dogs to play soccer against each other in teams of four. While Beckham's job is not yet jeopardized, the cool thing from an AI perspective is that 'once the humans flip the switch, the robots are on their own.' They compete in RoboCup whose stated goal is to 'by the year 2050,
develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots
that can win against the human world soccer champion team.' RoboCup also has competitions with wheeled soccer bots (of varying designs) and have a humanoid league in which the Honda ASIMO appeared. The students in the above article are preparing for the four-legged international championship coming up in July of 2003 in Padua, Italy."
At least the humanoid robots currently planned should be better looking in sports bras after a soccer game than some of the women currently playing professional soccer... *Shudder*.
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
Teledildonics.
In this earlier story we are told that AI is going no where due to the fact that graduate students are spending 3 years fixing broken robots instead of programming them.
I think if they give up those big robots, buy some Aibos in bulk, they can skip the repair stage, or at least shorten it quite a bit. Of course, if they get them at Circuit City, they can get the extended guarantee and not have to worry about repairs at all!!!
---
Never call a man a fool; borrow from him.
R2D2 can now be a proud soccer mom
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
AI really has gone to the dogs.
Nothing fails quite like prayer.
When a humanoid soccer-playing machine can be developed such that a simple slide tackle (a legal maneuver) can snap limbs, the world cup is a sure bet. This will take far less than 47 years. In fact, drop the "humanoid" requirement and we could be there next year.
Sometimes there's an elegant beauty in simple brute force.
Will the robots be primadonnas who crack during penalty kicks in extra time? Will they be programmed to roll around on the ground in a dramatic display of bad acting?
UNIX/Linux Consulting
Robotic grass growing.
Couldn't they think of a game more exciting than Soccer? Or is this just the final indictment of this stultifying "sport" for people who can't afford a stick?
7. This will get the attention of some geeks; maybe enough to draw attention away from "Star Trek" and cause this dead franchise to finally go away.
6. The moment when the goaltender says "Danger, Will Robinson!" is priceless.
5. Lots of fun game play alterations when robot bones are tossed onto the field.
4. Only a matter of time before they allow Taz-Bot, Die-Sector, Vlad, and the rest of our Battlebots friends onto the field. Then the fun really starts.
3. Gets rid of the problem of urination on the field that is plagues any event with real soccer players or real dogs.
2. Americans love dogs. Americans hate soccer. So, this is likely to move soccer from #74 to #63 on the ESPN-2 ratings.
1. Two words: Mecha-Aibo
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Only a real geek would take the time to automate an athletic event.
1. Create robotic soccer dogs
2. Replace human athletes
3. ?
4. Profit!
10. Drooldroids
9. Dyna-Mutts
8. Cyberpups
7. WinterMalaMutes
6. FIDO-Net
5. 3L33T T3RR313R's
4. The B-9 K-9's
3. See-Threepoodle's
2. The Borgzoi
1. BITches
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Yeah, true. But that won't make them Brazilian.
After reading the headline, I thought this article was about people playing soccer with the AIBO robot dogs - in my opinion, a far more fun sport than robot dogs playing soccer with soccer balls.
The couple of robot battle shows Comedy Central and Discovery ran a while back were boring because the robots weren't autonomous. Any hardware monkey can make a remote controlled killing machine. Autonomous ones would be way more interesting! And if they just happened to go mad and start killing the audience, well that just makes it more interesting, doesn't it?
I think I must be channeling Professor Farnsworth...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
------
> What if those soccer robots develope their own conscience, start killing the humans
I think you mean "consciousness". If they develop a "conscience" then they'll behave OK.
> and send a robot back to the past to kill the leader of the human resistance?
No problem: we'll just appoint the guy who invented them to be the leader of the human resistance.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade