Boffins create robot footballers

Swedish scientists have produced a robot which can play football.

'Priscilla' was developed by Professor Peter Nordin of the Chalmers University of Technology and is built around a human-sized plastic skeleton.

Nordin admitted that Priscilla looks like the "Terminator's sister" but said that she "moves like a human and her feet move like human's, complete with toe bones".

The robot has been designed to play in the annual Robocup soccer tournament in Japan to run alongside the World Cup. Priscilla will play with team mates Elvis and Elvina, which are earlier prototypes.

Elvis, named after a hip defect which gave him a shake, is currently being redesigned to improve its kicking action by putting a spring in his foot.

"We are trying to make his leg lighter to give him more freedom," said the professor. "We are also building new pressure sensors. We will try to put a little kicker on the foot: this isn't very human like, but it's not against the rules."

The robots are programmed with a combination of simple moves and are set a series of tasks to refine their actions. Eventually, they teach themselves how to move autonomously.

Professor Nordin warned that designers "don't want to give too much freedom to the robots as they will go crazy".

Sadly by "crazy" Nordin did not indicate that they would demand huge salaries and marry pop stars in a service that parodies a royal wedding. He means that the robots could do completely unexpected things.

See also:

RoboCup hounds dogged by injuries

Canine catastrophe threatens England robot team  28 May 2002

Karate robot tests cash machines

Give me a tenner Grasshopper, or someone's going to get hurt  01 May 2002

Sci-fi - Reality bytes

Just how credible is the science portrayed in films and TV? Computeractive looks at how technology in science fiction can become science fact.  24 Apr 2002

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