RoboCup 2001 Underway

Dan B writes: "RoboCup 2001, the fifth international competition, is underway. The competition is held from August 2nd through the 10th at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, USA. International teams compete their autonomous soccer-playing robots in three different leagues including Sony Legged League (remember the cute puppies?). The competition is open to the public, so if you happen to be near Seattle, check it out."

Re:let's hope it doesn't get Battlebot'd

[flumps]

Ho hum. Trolls eh? I suppose I'll stoop this time...

I think you're totally missing the point. Some of these robots are autonomous, and they can communicate and CO-OPERATE together.

In english, this means that they can figure out, without help from people, exactly what they are and what they are supposed to do and how they are supposed to do it. On top of that, they communicate their goals to other robots on the field; leaving jobs to others that they can't do themselves.

Have you ever done the maths to try to figure out how to keep a robot upright, let alone have it hover in a stable manner? Come back when you can translate a gyroscopic reading into mathematical equations to adjust flight axis via electronic motors and gears. Do you know how hard it is mathematically to work out where your legs are supposed to go in order to move forward, or how hard it is to figure out a game strategy based on what all your team mates are doing when they are all working independantly from you? Don't even talk to me about sensors or video optical processing! None of this is trivial by todays technological standards. It is bloody hard, intesive and time consuming mathematics which eats up processor time and leaves alot of robots trundling along at the pace of a snail.

As for the AI, when you can write a program that even comes close to a bot in quake with a single goal, come back and we'll have this discussion again.

Its a shame we have people like you. I like robot wars et al, but really, this technology isnt playing around with robots; it has REAL and IMPORTANT implications for todays society. Imagine a world where, instead of firefighters putting their lives at risk, we had autonomous teams of robots that new how to put out fires and could co-operate to complete the job - or how about a fleet of autonomous helicopters that could communicate and co-operate with each other to do innumerable tasks? Still want your mindless robot wars crap? Thought not.

Do not mock this technology - it's more important and more difficult to achieve than you think, and has more applications than you could ever dream of.

Comercialization has destroyed events like these

[hillct]

I remember a time (I feel so old...) when these types of events were held at MIT and CalTech but that was about it; when they were entered by teams of grad students who were all engrosed in the technolohical advancement of the machines.

Now there are TV shows like 'Robot Wars' on Comedy Central, and some similar program on the Learning Channel, which make a mockery of these sorts of events, allowing, entry of remote controlled devices rather than robots, and commented on by outragously dressed characcatures of human beings that you'd evpect to see on 'WWF Smackdown!'.

It's good to see that some of these competitions have remained pure durring this time of rampent commercialization.

--CTH

Re:Comercialization has destroyed events like thes

[drc500free]

Yes - as part of the intellectual elite, I feel that we shoult keep competitions of this nature to the top 1% of the academic world, and not share with anyone who we deem to be culturally and intellectually inferior to us. After all, if someone spent a year building a BattleBot in his basement with his son, it's absolutely useless if he doesn't have the knowledge to put A.I. in it. The purpose of events like this is to share the ideas and knowledge. True, these shows glam it up with crazy announcers, but that's just like coating some bitter tasting medicine.

The average American wouldn't want to watch this stuff if it was billed as academic, but if they are tricked into actually enjoying it, the field gets more attention.