A team of robots from Japan has won the humanoid division of the 2015 RoboCub World Championships.
Chiba Institute of Technology's Brain Kids beat ZJUDancer from China's Zhejian University, 1-0.
The UK's only entry, the University of Hertford's Bold Hearts, failed to score in their first game and were beaten 2-0 by a French side in the second round.
The UK team had finished runners up at the last RoboCup in Brazil, but said a change to softer artificial turf had caused "stability challenges". A change from a red to a white ball also made it more difficult for robots to see, the Bold Hearts team explained.
Running for five days in the Chinese city of Hefei, RoboCup is split into five leagues: small size, middle size, humanoid, standard platform and soccer simulation. Each league poses different challenges, from artificial intelligence to getting humanoid robots to move without falling over.
This was the 19th RoboCup tournament, with 47 countries and 2,000 contestants taking part. The first tournament was held in 1997. Its organisers hope to hold a competitive humans-versus robots match by 2050.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
