Build Your Own Soccer-Playing Robot

An anonymous reader writes "This article by a Ph.D student at Shanghai JiaoTong University (SJTU) Research Institute of Robotics describes an RTLinux-powered robot that placed fifth in the most recent RoboCup competition. The robot has two color cameras for visual sensing along with a laser range finder (LRF) for goalkeeper location, and a wireless LAN allows communication among the robots on SJTU's team. The robot's embedded operating system is Red Hat Linux enhanced with the RTLinuxPro real-time extension."

Comments

Linux 1, Microsoft Nil

[tiktok]

They were experimenting with robot soccer players that ran on Windows, but unfortunately they couldn't get them to run for 90 minutes straight.

Re:Linux 1, Microsoft Nil

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL. Even Microsoft's own gaming development company made fun of the Blue screen in Halo 2 Zanzibar map.

Robo-Fans.

[Anonymous Coward]

Are they going to build robot fans that tear up the town when their team loses?

Andres Escobar

[Michael Hunt]

Now all we gotta do is wait for this thing to score an own goal and it'll get shot at the airport on its way home.

I love soccer fans :)

What's next?

[GuyMannDude]

First we got robot soldiers and now we got robot soccer players. What we really need are robotic Mexican soccer announcers:

cout << "He shoots!" << endl;
cout << "He scores!" << endl;
cout << "G";
for (int i = 0; i < 10000; ++i)
{
cout << "o";
}
cout << "al!" << endl;

GMD

2050 World Cup Championship

[dhj]

Last time I saw a post about this on Slashdot Vision was boasting they would be able to win the World Cup in 2050... I felt the need to call bullshit on that boast, but for the wrong reason.

The reason I called bullshit originally is because I remember seeing an amazing achievement in robot dexterity in 1998. The Honda prototype, Asimo, slowly, precisely and precariously walk up a few steps without toppling. After seeing that robot hobble up some stairs, my response to a humanoid robot with soccer player dexterity within 45 years was a predictable... Bullshit.

If you were thinking the same thing... Take a look at these pics and vids. They are impressive. They just might have soccer player dexterity by 2050. Without having to worry about getting tired or even slowing down they could pose a major threat (in soccer, put your tinfoil hat back on).

However, I'm still going to call bullshit. Mainly because soccer, unlike chess, deals with full freedom of motion in a 3D field. Computers only recently were able to master chess on a world competition level with intense processing. Chess is played on an 8x8 field, with significant, but limited, branching. The 3D nature of soccer (or even the 2D nature of novice soccer) presents branching that could be arguably higher than that of Go. Combine that with the fact that soccer players aren't going to wait a turn for the computer to "think". This is my new reason for calling bullshit on a Robot 2050 World Cup Champion.

But, damn if those robot control systems aren't impressive. I wouldn't mind eating these words. Robots are cool.

--David

Re:Red cards?? That's what football is all about!

[SnowZero]

2 of the 3 RoboCup soccer leauges already have red cards, believe it or not. Probably the craziest thing I've ever seen in 6 years of RoboCup was in 1999, in a game between FU-Fighters (Germany) and RobotIS (Korea) in the small size leauge. Small size robots are up to 180mm in diameter, and up to 150mm tall. Germany had robots where the "kicker" was an 800 RPM spinning aluminum metal plate, while robotIS had tiny robots (from another leauge). At one point Germany's robot kicked one of the RobotIS robots completely into the air! It did a complete flip, and when it landed, it just kept on playing, which was almost more amazing. Not suprisingly there were several red cards in that game.