|21 November 2016|
Japan
“By the middle of the 21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win a soccer game, complying with the official rules of FIFA, against the winner of the most recent World Cup.”
Is this pure fantasy or an achievable goal? 
For the organisers and participants of RoboCup it is the ultimate dream and one they are working towards.
Just for fun or a serious scientific project?
While watching robots play football sounds fun this initiative is far more than a marketing gimmick. Organisers would be the first to admit the dream won’t be realised tomorrow but by being encouraged to push the boundaries of what is possible it is believed pioneers will develop breakthrough technologies along the way that have applications for a variety of industries.
The event has a number of competitions within it, all with the objective of fostering ‘research and education in robotics and Artificial Intelligence’. It consists of: RoboCupSoccer, RoboCupRescue, RoboCup@Home and RoboCupJunior.
Twenty years on from the first official RoboCup games and conference in 1997, Nagoya will host the event in 2017 welcoming teams from around the world united in their aim to promote research in these areas.
And there is still time to get involved and participate at RoboCup 2017. The deadline for potential participants to apply is Thursday 1 December 2016.
