Small Soccer Bots Learn Physics, Play Minigolf
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 14 of June , 2010 at 1:54 am
Human World Cup Soccer (that’s football, to most of you) is fun to watch (even if it is on at 4am here in California), but as far as evolution goes, we humans have pretty much peaked. Really, the only thing about the game that evolves reliably from cup to cup is the ball (and that’s not always a good thing). Robots, on the other hand, have no such limitations. Carnegie Mellon’s CMDragons small-size robotic soccer team have taken another step towards robot domination by teaching their small size soccer bots the physics of ball movement. The demonstration below pits a robot that knows physics against a robot that doesn’t; keep in mind that the robots are entirely autonomous, controlled by a computer that watches the action on an overhead camera:
Without modeling the physics of the ball, the computer just tries to position the robots on the ball without taking the movement of the ball into account. A physical model allows the computer to move the robot predicatively, greatly improving dribbling skill:
Call me crazy, but these robots look to be demonstrating the same basic skills as talented human soccer players: win the ball, keep your body between the ball and your opponent, and then get an angle, get around him, and shoot.
Here’s a video of the CMU team competing in 2008, without the physics based planning software… Two years ago is a long, long time in the world of robots, but even so, the passing and shooting is impressive:
And if soccer’s not your thing, the same basic skills make the robots highly effective at playing minigolf:
I guess now we know what soccer robots do for fun in their spare time.
RoboCup 2010 starts in Singapore on June 19.
[ Stefan Zickler ] AND [ CMU Robot Soccer ] VIA [ Robots.net ]
Comments (4)
Category: Artificial Intelligence,Competitive,Research
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Comment by granit
Made Monday, 4 of July , 2011 at 3:38 am
.) It’s hard to find knowledgeable people on this topic, but you sound like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks
Comment by morgan
Made Thursday, 6 of October , 2011 at 9:00 pm
dont want to miss the game, heading home right away………………
Comment by Retirement Communities in Delaware
Made Monday, 16 of January , 2012 at 11:16 pm
Dead pent content , thanks for information .
Comment by website
Made Tuesday, 17 of January , 2012 at 2:53 am
1 cheese
