NETHERLANDS: Robot teams clash in football championship in the Netherlands

Record ID: 401882

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: Robot teams clash in football championship in the Netherlands
  • Date: 27th June 2013
  • Summary: EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS (JUNE 27, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ROBOT FOOTBALL MATCH BETWEEN DUTCH AND AND GERMAN TEAMS DUTCH HUMAN CREW WORKING ON COMPUTER SCREENS DURING BREAK (SOUNDBITE) (English) EINDHOVEN TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY CREW MEMBER ROBIN SOETENS SAYING: "With these soccer games we are trying to develop new technology, because soccer is a really difficult game
  • Embargoed: 12th July 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Netherlands
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Topics: Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA972BM9CARZFV88ESYR9XJH8U6
  • Story Text: Competition started on Thursday (June 27) at the football world championship for humanoid robots 'Robocup' in Eindhoven.
    Robocup is a worldwide project aiming to develop technology in robotics by sharing knowledge between participating teams. Organisers chose soccer as a subject to draw more attention from a wide public.

    "With these soccer games we are trying to develop new technology, because soccer is a really difficult game for robots, of course, and this new technology can be applied in many other fields of robotics, so for example there is also a competition here for rescue robots and care robots and that is where this new technology can be applied," Eindhoven Technical University crew Member Robin Soetens said.
    All robots in this competition play independently, without any human guidance or help during the match.
    RoboCup has set itself a goal that by 2050, a team of soccer robots must be able to beat the human world champions, said Soetens.
    The aim of RoboCup is to speed the development of reliable, low-cost robot technology. Scientist Rene van de Molengraft from Eindhoven Technical university, who is among the organisers, said the technology was moving fast and could be available on the consumer market in 10 to 15 years.

    "If this development continues and it will, I expect, that let's say in ten to fifteen years we will really see care robots as products that we can simply buy on the consumer market for the price of a small car," he said.
    RoboCup can be visited for free until Sunday June 30. The competition expects around 2500 contestants from around 40 countries, competing with their rescue robots, service robots, dancing robots and soccer robots. Teams from the USA, Germany, Thailand, Japan, Iran and the Netherlands will defend their World Cup titles won in 2012 in Mexico City.
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