The 2010 World Cup in South Africa provided a fine showcase for the best soccer talent on the planet, but at June’s RoboCup 2010 in Singapore, soccer-playing robots showed that the pitch may not forever be limited to living, breathing players.
IEEE Spectrum ventured to the southeast Asian city-state for a first-hand look at several levels of ball-kickin’ bots, from toddlers to full-size humanoids. Indeed, the ability to pass to other robots as well as score from “long” distance is impressive, but the speed with which they move on the extremely condensed field illustrates the challenges that organizers will have with their stated goal of using life-size, competitive robots to defeat a team of human soccer champions by 2050.
Although, it’s clear from the event footage that these bots (especially the goalies) have nailed the human-perfected technique of flopping on the field of play.
