Nanosoccer Competition At RoboCup 08 (Bring Your Microscope)
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 20 of May , 2008 at 5:28 am
Robot soccer comes in all shapes and sizes. Including very, very, VERY small sizes. This weekend, NIST (the guys who keep track of what time it is) will host a RoboCup nanosoccer exhibition match, where the playing field is smaller than a grain of rice and the robots involved are about the same width as two of your hairs (the picture of bots on a playing field above was taken with a scanning electron microscope). Let me try and put that in perspective… Here’s a soccer nanobot perched on a grain of salt:
Rules of the game, and video, after the jump.
Each robot competes in three events:
-The 2-Millimeter Dash: Each nanobot chooses the optimal time for a goal-to-goal sprint across the playing field.
-Slalom Drill: Robots race from goal to goal while avoiding “defenders” (polymer posts) that block the path.
-Ball-Handling Drill: Robots “dribble” as many microdisks as possible into a goal within a 3-minute period.
The bot “dribbling” a ball in the video below belongs to team IRIS from the University of Zurich:
The nanobots are controlled remotely, and are powered by magnetic fields or electrical impulses sent across the floor of the arena. The impetus behind the competition (besides sheer awesomeness) is to spur innovation behind microrobotics, with an eye towards robots that will some day be able to wander around inside our bodies and fix what ails us.
Category: Competitive, Nano
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Comment by Huy Bui
Made Wednesday, 21 of May , 2008 at 4:11 am
It’s not University of Zurich. IRIS is from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich.
Comment by JayDid
Made Wednesday, 21 of May , 2008 at 4:45 pm
This is kind of cool. However if I got in to the field of nanobots I would study on how to combat nono bots in case that somebody f***s up and makes a flesh eating nanobot.
Comment by ethan
Made Sunday, 15 of June , 2008 at 12:10 am
AH! don’t even say that! Bugs and cancer is bad enough!