The RoboCup was played to geeky fanfare at the Dutch technology center of Eindhoven. Robots and their operators test their skills in a variety of activities.

The main focus of the RoboCup competitions is the game of soccer, where the research goals concern cooperative multi-robot and multi-agent systems in dynamic adversarial environments. All robots in this league are fully autonomous.

Why is a football league chosen to boost the development of robotics? First of all, soccer is a popular sport worldwide so soccer competitions get a lot of attention from spectators since a lot of people enjoy wachting soccer matches. Secondly, playing soccer with robots is a huge challenge on the field of software and mechatronics. Moreover, the element of competition makes that the entire team is highly motivated so they will spend a large part of their spare time planning, designing and improving the robots. Everyone dreams of being the world champion some day!

Thankfully no robo-soccer hooligans were allowed entry into the venue.



Above, members of the Northern Bite team from Brunswick, Maine, in the U.S. are animated in supporting their team during a important match in the Standard Platform League.