Robots at International Humanoid Robot Olympic Games play football
The football World Cup 2010 in South Africa has caught the imagination of the entire world, and the craze for the beautiful game has over taken many countries that are not even participating in the 32-team event.
The tournament is steadily heading towards its climax with many of the leading teams like France and defending champions Italy crashing out in the opening round of the tournament, causing grief and heartbreak for their passionate fans.
The tournament that is taking place in South Africa is the first ever football World Cup to be staged in Africa, and while there has generally been disappointment for the Africans, people in the most populated country in the world, have started a unique event in the country.
China’s national team might not be playing in the World Cup tournament, yet there is some joy for their football crazy fans as their robot soccer team emerged victorious at the International Humanoid Robot Olympic Games held in the northern city of Harbin.
Three teams took part in the unique Olympiad which included hosts China besides South Korea and America. The event saw humanoid robots facing each others on the football pitch as spectators watched the mechanical players taking part in dribbling, kicking and passing the ball around.
The third robot in the team, guards the goal, and is shaped like a goal-keeper. The championship was won by local computer science students studying at the Harbin Institute of Technology. There was plenty of excitement in the final match, which went down to the wire and was decided only on a shootout with the winner robot scoring the most number of goals in the tie-breaker.
“What make us better than the human Chinese team, in my opinion, is two things: on one hand, it is physical ability. When humans are playing a match, their physical performance will weaken and they will become really exhausted. But our robots are the best among electricity-powered options, they will never get tired during a match,” said the winner student, absolutely elated with his effort.
The robots can be quite a challenge to operate; they need a high degree of fine-tuning before each match.Besides a sophisticated degree of movement is needed to recognise the ball, and to keep tabs on its movement and trajectory of the kick deployed by the robots, as completion can be really stiff and each and every minute details are to be taken care of by the players, as one mistake can be the difference between a win or a loss.
The small robot category was won by another local team, and one of their competitors Liu Tantao, was optimistic about the human and robotic future of Chinese football.
“Robot football, as well as our real human football, is advancing. Also, I think, we will see the day when China's football will soar to the sky, no matter whether they are humans or robots. Eventually they will stand on the winner's podium”.
Over the years, Chinese robots have a stranglehold on sporting events that feature robots, where they have performed exceptionally well in international events of robotic basketball and gymnastics, two sports where Chinese men have performed brilliantly as well.
After the football competition, a basketball event was also staged where a robot “Yao Ming”- named after a famous basketball player - used his Styrofoam claws to grab the ball and advance to the basket for a well thought out dunk.
In another little act to show their prowess in Gymnastics, a robot tumbled, flipped and somersaulted on a wooden plank with some degree of success.
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