European Robot Football Cup

The European Robot Football Cup is being held in Linz and, like the Euro 2008, matches are played in both Switzerland and Austria.

Team scientists stand for the national anthem and the referee blows his whistle to signal the start of the match. The spectators don't wear face paint or team shirts, but they watch with the same intensity as any football fan.

The championship event has attracted top teams of scientists from countries including Germany, Russia, Canada, Croatia and Austria.

[Martin Honzik, Organizer]:
"The robotic European championship allows Austria to bring in two
teams. So, the expectations are really high to make one gold medal and
compared to the other one, the bigger one we didn't have a bit of a
chance."

Austria's soccer squad took part in Euro 2008 for the first time ever
this year. The nation was granted an automatic entry as co-host but were
forced to make an early exit. Their robotic team, however, made it to the
finals.

While England failed to qualify for the regular Euro 2008 tournament, the UK
was represented with robots by Plymouth University. British robot engineers used Artificial Intelligence to ensure their players had both speed and agility.

[Guido Bugmann, Team Leader, Plymouth University]:
"You have the camera here which looks at the pitch, at the ball,
the goal posts and the computer makes the decisions, so this robot is
completely autonomous."

A camera registers a player's position 120 times per second and
forwards the data to a computer which performs split-second calculations for
the next play before it sends commands to players via radio waves.

The only role for humans at these games are as spectators, as all the
work is done by the machines themselves.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• technology
• gadget
• tech
• invention
• ntd
• ntdtv
• japan
• new
• new gadgets
• fun gadgets
• electronic
• tool
• gizmo
• widget
• news
• robot
• sport
• soccer
• football