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The Vegan Marxist
13th July 2011, 17:26
Robot Soccer Players Learning Fancy Human Skills
By Evan Ackerman
July 8, 2011

http://spectrum.ieee.org/image/1888227

In the past, most humanoid robot soccer competitions (http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/robots-preparing-to-defeat-humans-in-soccer) have consisted of repeated kicking of the ball towards the goal and (for all practical purposes) not too much else. Ambitious algorithms and programming have fallen victim to sensors and hardware that can't always keep up, as well as opponents who tend to interfere in carefully planned strategies. However, we're starting to see some exceptionally clever robot maneuvers leading up to RoboCup (http://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/robocup) 2011 in Istanbul, which had its first round of matches just yesterday.

These two videos come from the Darmstadt Dribblers (http://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/darmstadt+dribblers), whom you may remember as the victors in the KidSize bracket at RoboCup 2010 (http://www.botjunkie.com/2010/06/29/darmstadt-dribblers-win-robocup-2010-kidsize/). They show the robots practicing both human-style throw-ins, and a skilled passing game that avoids obstacles, all completely autonomously:

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Impressive. Most impressive. Personally, I think we humans are doomed, especially considering that it was two years ago now (i.e. foreverago in robot years) that a team of non-humanoid robots actually managed to score (http://youtu.be/YI9xnZ9msn8?t=8m36s) on a team of humans in a friendly game.

[ Darmstadt Dribblers (http://www.dribblers.de/index.en.php) ]

[ RoboCup 2011 (http://www.robocup2011.org/en/default.asp) ]

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/robot-soccer-players-learning-fancy-human-skills

Sensible Socialist
13th July 2011, 17:50
I watched the second video first, and I thought they were human-size robots. :blushing:

It's pretty interesting. Maybe within the century we'll be watching robot sporting competitions instead of human ones. After all, if they're injured you can replace them instantly with one of the same skill level. Although the personality factor would be lost, unless they gave each robot a unique "personality."

Hivemind
13th July 2011, 18:02
In that second video, around 34 seconds when the robot fell I said to myself "hah, take that robotics!" And then he got up...we're doomed.

Luisrah
15th July 2011, 12:23
In that second video, around 34 seconds when the robot fell I said to myself "hah, take that robotics!" And then he got up...we're doomed.

Loooool I thought that too!
That was awesome, specially the second fall, he got up so quick! :lol:

ckaihatsu
15th July 2011, 20:57
That was fucking great -- I laughed my ass off throughout the whole thing...!

So first chess, and soon soccer.... What'll be left -- to have mechanical animals devour robot gladiators in the open-air arena -- ???


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