ROBOTICS:
'RoboCup' Soccer Match Is a Challenge for Silicon Rookies
Dennis Normile
NAGOYA, JAPAN--At a conference on artificial intelligence held here last month, the first World Cup Robot soccer competition was held, pitting robots against robots in small and midsize categories. The ultimate goal is a robots-vs.-humans match, but in the meantime, the challenge is meant to spur advances in robot vision, sensors, and mechanics; and in the programming needed for multiple autonomous robots to solve problems in real time, learn from experience, and work as a team.