The premiere event for robotic football, the RoboCup, is scheduled for Brazil in July, and the University of Pennsylvania robotics lab will be seeking a fourth consecutive RoboCup.
Robots have improved their game from a decade ago, having moved from four-legged doglike machines to two-legged humanoid forms. However, they still move awkwardly, sometimes fail to locate the ball, and often end up in collisions or fall on their own, notes Daniel Lee, who heads the University of Pennsylvania robotics lab. He says it may take another decade or two before humanoid robots are capable of competing with the best players in the world.
Roboticists need to develop technology for individual robots, and find better ways for machines to communicate with each other to coordinate strategy, but the biggest challenge is to develop the type of awareness and intelligence that athletes have. Lee says similar technology can be used in robots that perform household tasks or search and rescue, as well as in self-driving cars.
From Agence France-Presse
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