From the AP via Times of Israel:
Some 300 teams take part in a competition aiming to field a team of cyborgs that can beat humans by 2050
Robots
in the 'standard platform' division compete at the RoboCup
championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on June 27, 2013. (photo
credit: AP/Toby Sterling)
EINDHOVEN, Netherlands (AP) — With the score tied 1-1, it’s gone to a penalty shootout in a tense soccer match between teams from Israel and Australia.
As the Australian goalkeeper in his red jersey braces for the shot, the Israeli striker pauses. Then he breaks into a dance instead of kicking the ball.Perhaps he can be forgiven: He’s a robot, after all.Welcome to the RoboCup, where more than a thousand soccer-playing robots from forty countries have descended on the Dutch technology Mecca of Eindhoven this week with one goal in mind: beat the humans.Eventually.The tournament’s mission is to defeat the human World Cup winners by 2050 — creating technology along the way that will have applications far beyond the realm of sport.To achieve the goal, organizers have created multiple competition classes — including small robots, large robots, humanoid robots and even virtual robots — with plans to merge their techniques into a single squad of all-star androids capable of one day winning a man vs. machine matchup.For now, Lionel Messi doesn’t need to look over his shoulder. Humanoid robots have difficulty keeping their balance, and the largest — human height — move more like, well, robots than world-class athletes.“To be honest, I think a 3-year-old could win against any of the humanoid teams,” says Marcell Missura of the University of Bonn, whose NimbRO team won the “teen” humanoid class in Mexico City last year.NimbRO’s 3-foot (120 centimeter) striker sports a shock of white hair and a flashy pink bandanna as it towers above a Japanese opponent in one match. That’s because the Japanese player doesn’t have a head, just a prong with a camera mounted on top....MORE
Previously:
Finally, a video preview of the level of athleticism which will be exhibited and, beyond the athletics, a display of the central ethos of sport or, swiping a line from "Robot Soccer Goes Big Time":
A hilarious and terrifying vision of our sporting future....
