Robots playing football-- what will they think of next? Well, how about a robot football world championship? The Robocup competition in the Netherlands seized teams of international developers battle it out on the pitch with their technology. All the robots play independently without any human guidance or help during the match. The aim of Robocup is to speed up the development of reliable low-cost robot technology and organisers chose football as a subject to draw more public attention.
"With these soccer games we're trying to develop new technology cause soccer really is a difficult game for robots of course and this new technology can be applied in many other field of robotics. So for example, there's also a competition here for rescue robots and for care robots and that's all where this new technology can be applied."
Robocup has set itself a goal that by 2050, a team of football robots must be able to beat the human world champions. Around 2,500 contestants from over 40 countries are expected to take part in the games, which run until Sunday.
