RoboCup underway in Germany

Human footballers aren't the only ones in Germany getting a little bit of lovin' this time of year. More than 400 teams from 36 countries have shown up for the annual RoboCup, which pits robot against robot in soccer matches across 11 leagues. The goal, as always, is to have a humanoid robot team capable of beating the human World Cup champs in 2050, but right now a lot of the robots are just happy to stand up. Current favorites in the humanoid competition is a team from Japan, while the returning champs from Germany are expected to do well in the four-legged league. Live commentary for some matches will be provided by Sango and Ami, two robots from Carnegie Mellon who explain rules, analyze fouls and call out the goals with their very own "personalities." No word if former star RoboVie-V will be making an appearance among the robot horde, but the real question is: can they dance like Peter Crouch?

[James @ Jun 14th 2006 11:01AM]

Check your Grammer dude. Proof read next time!

Look at the title.

[Ray @ Jun 14th 2006 11:45AM]

James.. I hate people like you who have to correct other people’s GRAMMAR or spelling or putting that FIRST POST crap. Learn to spell next time. This isn't a term paper for college, and correcting other people when you're wrong makes look like an idiot.

[R @ Jun 14th 2006 12:34PM]

p.p.s. I think people should have to put their age when writing posts. That way, when someone writes something stupid, we can look and say, "Oh, okay . . . that's a 13-year-old writing this innane crap," and we can all ignore him.

Oh, yeah . . . I'm 30, everyone.

[R @ Jun 14th 2006 12:37PM]

Anyone got any links to VIDEO of these bad boys? We all know still photos don't do these things justice.

p.s. I agree with Ray. This isn't the New York Times, folks. Get a grip.

[Blake @ Jun 14th 2006 1:05PM]

Awesome, a robot made around an HX4700. hmm, I have one of those, I wonder if they'd give me a kit.

[chenry @ Jun 14th 2006 1:19PM]

C'mon, 2050? Just strap some laser guns or something and you can just vapourize the other team.

Robot Supremacy by 2012!

[edac2 @ Jun 14th 2006 1:58PM]

Dead or alive, you're coming with me. (Sorry, with that headline I couldn't resist.)

[Shubha @ Jun 15th 2006 4:47AM]

Very interesting article dude.

[Alibo @ Jun 15th 2006 6:59AM]

videos and livestreams till sunday:

http://www.heute.de/ZDFmediathek/inhalt/27/0,4070,3917691-1,00.html

(beware, coverage in german by ZDF)