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University team compete in robot football contest

Tony Fisher
BBC News, Hertfordshire
University of Hertfordshire Seven men and women with some of them holding robots all standing in a line and facing the camera. They are standing on a small football pitch in a large arena with goals in the background.University of Hertfordshire
(From left to right) Teammates Bente Riegler, Alessandra Rossi, Daniel Polani, Roberto Figueiredo, Oliver James Joseph Samuel, Dan Barry and Abdul Hanan

A team from the University of Hertfordshire have travelled to Salvador in Brazil to take part in a global football competition involving autonomous robots.

The aim of RoboCup 2025 is to develop humanoid robots capable of defeating the human FIFA World Cup champions by 2050 in a fair match.

Daniel Polani, a professor of artificial intelligence at the university and part of the team, said the AI robots "are nowhere close to the ability of a Messi or a Ronaldo because running is a very difficult task".

He added: "At this stage we are happy if they can walk without falling down."

RoboCup, which first started in 1997, has long served as a proving ground for AI and robotics researchers and this year's competition involves 250 teams from 37 countries.

University of Hertfordshire A small robot on a desk surrounded by other equipment including a computer and a keyboard. There are chairs in the background.University of Hertfordshire
Mr Polani said the robots can communicate with each other by their breastplates which have a particular colour

"We have been playing with humanoid robots which look like humans and the robots we use are not allowed to use anything that humans don't have," said Mr Polani, who is also on the Board of Trustees of the RoboCup Federation.

"The robots are independent - they are not remote controlled because it is a competition where AI does everything," he said.

The only remote aspect is the whistle to stop and start the game, he added.

Mr Polani said the idea behind the competition was if you want to make intelligent machines you have to put them in the real world and "if they mess up they mess up themselves".

"It is a really difficult task to kick and not fall down and you have to contend with 22 different robots working in a coordinated fashion," he added.

University of Hertfordshire An aerial view of a large arena which has several mini football pitches in it. There are also large tables with teams of people around them.University of Hertfordshire
RoboCup is regarded by some as "the world's largest robotics and artificial intelligence competition"

The University of Hertfordshire sent its first team to RoboCup in 2002, as it believed it was "where the future of robotics will lie", said Mr Polani.

He said the French and Japanese teams were good, but he did not think that they would do well this year.

RoboCup takes place from 17-21 July alongside other competitions such as where robots are tested in rescue situations and perform household tasks.

Organisers said the competition was expected to attract 150,000 spectators.

Livestream coverage was also available throughout the event on Twitch and YouTube.

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