Robot Makers Say World Cup Will Be Theirs By 2050

mindpixel writes "The Scotsman is reporting that the Japanese are very confident they can build a robotic team that will win the World Cup by 2050 using a descendent of the 38cm tall VisiON which operates completely independently of human input, making its own decisions based on information that it perceives with its 360 degree vision, and is able to recognise the football, approach it and deliver a hefty kick. It is also able to identify an opponent and shield the ball in much the same way as a human player does."

Comments

Physical contact

[Asterixian]

So what happens when one of the human players on the other team does a slide tackle on the robot? Does the robot fall down? Does the robot get damaged? Does the human get injured? IANASP, but it seems like physical contact between opposing players is so common that replacing man with machine is either clumsy, scary, or both.

Kicking and blocking aren't the only things

[dmccarty]

The biggest challenges aren't kicking and blocking. How will they handle a goalie bot being able to recognize an incoming ball and block it. And what if the ball has spin on it? 2050 seems like a long way away, but if you look at the state of today's vision recognition we have a long way to go.

Also, there's the interesting question of logistics: will the World Cup champion team want to play against a team of robots? How would you like to miss the ball and kick your shin right into a robot's aliminum alloy leg? Ouch!