Just in case you thought there was no real incentive to develop robot technology (there clearly is: it is that robots are fricking awesome), a fantastic example can be found in the robot world cup. Called RoboCup, it was established in 1997 and provides an annual competition for people who design and make robots to compete in several categories. The most obviously awesome aspect of this is that of designing robots which are capable of playing football (that's soccer, to anyone who is from places where football is called soccer and American football is called football).I think it's a great way to encourage development of new robots. It has categories for different sizes and styles of robot, but the rules state they can't be remote controlled (this isn't Robot Wars, people) - the robots must contain AI and decide for themselves what to do. They communicate with each other using wireless (WLAN), and work as a team. Last year's RoboCup Soccer tournament was won by teams from Germany and Singapore. Even though there is a category for full-size humanoid robots, there's some way to go before they would be capable of taking on an actual human team. Even one which is really rubbish. Insert catty football remark here.
The 2011 RoboCup took place earlier this month in Istanbul, and featured categories other than soccer, including robots for use around the home, and robots for rescue purposes.
More information, and some cool videos of the action, can be found on Wikipedia, on the RoboCup Wiki, the 2011 RoboCup homepage, and at www.RoboCup.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment