Imagine robots that can play soccer (football) at the level of the World Cup championships. For researchers in artificial intelligence, such an event would be tantamount to—and possibly even surpass—that moment in 1997 when IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer defeated then-world champion Garry Kasparov in chess.
The challenges are daunting. Autonomous, athletically capable humanoids that act together as a unit would require not just highly advanced software (the intellectual component) but also highly advanced hardware (the physical component). By sharing knowledge and codes, and developing and testing technologies together, AI designers hope to realize this vision.
Launched in 1993, the RoboCup international robot soccer competition (also known as the Robot World Cup Initiative) provides a platform for AI and robotics researchers to test their developments, work together, spur each other on, and create research breakthroughs. It is a competition in the best sense of the word—the kind that facilitates cooperation.
In his essay “Robot Soccer,” University of New South Wales computer science and engineering professor Claude Sammut describes the different levels of play, pointing out that the robotic soccer fields are smaller (and virtual in some low-level competitions), and the rules much simpler than in soccer played by humans. Currently, there are only three robots per team, as compared to eleven in human play. Sammut writes: “As the robots and their programming have become more sophisticated, the rules of the game, including field size and number of players, have been made tougher to encourage progress.”
French company Aldebaran Robotics’ humanoid Nao is the model of robot currently in use in the RoboCup. While still relatively basic, these humanoid robots use color cameras as their primary sensors, operate autonomously (as opposed to being remote-controlled), and can communicate with each other wirelessly.
Sammut stresses that soccer is only a means to an end—not an end in itself. “In addition to soccer playing, the competition also includes leagues for urban search and rescue and for robotic helpers at home,” he writes. He emphasizes that soccer is good for developing the fundamentals that will be necessary for these and many other tasks. The basics include “perceiving” their surroundings, interpreting constantly changing situations, making quick decisions based on those situations, and then acting on them, adjusting tactics as necessary. The AI units must also be able to transmit information back and forth.
Whereas soccer fields always conform to the same basic grid layout and boast the same landmarks (goal posts, for example), less-structured environments present greater challenges. For example, a house or apartment and the possessions it contains (which can act as landmarks) may not change much over time, but it is more complex to move about in. It is harder still for an AI program to map a completely unfamiliar urban environment without any immediately identifiable landmarks. In search and rescue situations, “the robot has to simultaneously map its environment while reacting to and interacting with the surroundings,” Sammut writes. And off the soccer field, AI units must interact with actual people—not just other AI units.
Despite the challenges, little by little, progress is being made each year and the “sport” is growing in popularity. In fact, when Japan hosts the 2020 summer Olympics in Tokyo they plan on having a Robocup tournament at the same time.
It’s fun to follow the Olympics, but something is missing. It’s certainly not human narratives or drama. It’s not excitement. It’s robots. Where are the robots? Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has the same question, and since Japan is hosting the 2020 summer games in Tokyo, he’s in a position to do something about it.
Robot athletes don’t stop at soccer. Robots have been involved in a large array of sports including:
BASEBALL: Researchers at Ishikawa Watanabe Laboratory in Japan have devised one robot that pitches and another that bats.
PING-PONG: Table tennis seems to attract robotics researchers. Two humanoid robots developed at Zhejiang University in China hold a long volley with one another. A non-humanoid contraption from Omron Automation Lab also plays pretty well. As is often the case, if a bot does not have to look or move like a human, it can often perform better.
AIR HOCKEY: A little, round tabletop bot have been created by Jose Julio of 3D Systems with parts from a 3-D printer.
BILLIARDS: A robot built by Thomas Nierhoff at Technical University of Munich in Germany pockets five!
BADMINTON: Don’t think this sport is difficult? Try it. The robot from the Flanders Mechatronics Technology Center in Belgium can only move on a single track, back and forth across the court. A birdie however, flies in varied trajectories, so just tracking and swatting it is an accomplishment.
BASKETBALL: The robot at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh is a big arm that shoots free throws.
History of Robotics Timeline 