Robots are coming

RoboCup tournament headed to Brazil

The York Daily Record is the paper I used to find this interesting article in the Sports section (c1- c3). The article that I read was about a group of college students and professors from the University of Pennsylvania who are trying to accomplish their ultimate goal of creating a robotic soccer team that will eventually defeat the human World Cup by 2050.  Although this sounds like something new to most of us it has been going on for several years. Both students and professors have been trying to achieve their goal for a long time now and the real problem that the students and professors are facing is to be able to make the robots fully autonomous, and to be able to make quick and rash decisions. Much like humans there is a learning curve that the robots have to understand as well in order to play soccer successfully and people who play the sport know that a lot of it comes from making good judgment. Director and coach of the project Dan Lee states that “Back in the early stages of the project the games resembles humans playing soccer at 5-years of age. All clustered together kicking the ball and not really having a sense of where to kick the ball too.” Today, they are able to perform basic athletic skills and strategies much like those who play at 10-years of age. As the 2014 World Cup in Brazil begins to close another chapter, it begins another one for the RoboCup, which is to be held on July 19-25 in Brazil.

            I found this article to be interesting because I my self am an avid soccer player and find it interesting how this kind of thing has been going on for so long. Its interesting to see how they have taken gradual steps in trying to make these robots autonomous and to think quickly. I know first hand how difficult that can be, when coming face to face with a defender, and you have to make that quick decision as to whether you can get around him or if you should pass to your teammate. I also found it interesting how in the beginning stages of this program professor Dan Lee explains, how their robots resembled those who play when they are 5-years of age. The reason I find this interesting is that much like humans learning the sport at a young age the robots are learning at a young age too. Looking back I remember those days of not knowing what to do with the ball, and remember all of us crowded together kicking the ball and getting no where, but after many years of playing and being taught different athletic skills and techniques I, including others were able to work together. It will be very interesting to see whether there goal of beating humans in the 2050 World Cup will pan out. I think that if humans were to play against robots in the World Cup that these robotic scientists will have much more to look at than just being able to make them autonomous. Such as, how heavy they are and the fact that they could potentially can harm to the human players if they were to come in contact with one another.