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CMU international robotic soccer champs
Thursday, July 09, 1998 By Byron Spice, Science Editor, Post-Gazette
The shortcomings of Carnegie Mellon University's robotic soccer teams became glaringly obvious yesterday at the finals of the international RoboCup competition in Paris.
The robotic players can't give each other high fives.
They had every reason to celebrate, however, after the three Carnegie Mellon teams won all three competitions in which they were entered -- small-size robots, simulators and legged robots.
"We are very, very happy," said Manuela Veloso, the computer scientist who coaches the CMUnited teams.
This was the second annual RoboCup competition, which provides robotics experts worldwide the opportunity to test robotics hardware and, especially, software.
The competition forces the robots not only to learn how to play soccer, but to learn how to work with their teammates and adjust to the tactics of other teams.
Last year, in Nagoya, Japan, Carnegie Mellon was the champion in the small robot category and placed third in simulators. The latter competition involves no real robots, but only virtual teams.
This year, CMUnited bested 11 other teams in the small-size category, beating an Australian team 3-1 in what Veloso described as a particularly exciting final match.
The small-size teams each have five players, each about the size of a softball, and play on a field the size of a ping-pong table.
In the simulator category, Carnegie Mellon beat last year's champs, Germany's Humboldt University, by 3-0 in the final. Almost 40 teams competed in this category. Competitors came from such countries as Canada, Portugal, Japan, Brazil, Poland, Finland and Italy.
And in an exhibition category, using legged, dog-size robots built by the Sony Corp., Carnegie Mellon beat both the other teams, one from Paris and one from Japan.
Next year, RoboCup will move to Stockholm. Perhaps by then the robots will be outfitted with mechanical fingers so they can give each other victory salutes.
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