Latest news with #RoboCup
Malay Mail
7 days ago
- Science
- Malay Mail
Man of the match? Try machine: China's T1 takes the pitch for robot world cup
BEIJING, Aug 3 — On a football pitch in Beijing, 'T1' is practising shots and taking up positions. T1 is no ordinary player, however, but a gold medal-winning humanoid robot training for the first World Humanoid Robot Games, taking place in Beijing from August 15. T1 is part of a race to take the lead in humanoid robotics, as China looks to become more self-sufficient in advanced technologies. The Games will bring together teams from more than 20 countries for events ranging from track and field to dance and martial arts, as well as practical applications such as industrial handling and medical services. Chen Penghui, a member of Tsinghua University's Hephaestus team, works on a computer next to T1 humanoid robots developed by Booster Robotics, at a football pitch in preparation for competitions at the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games, at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing August 1, 2025. — Reuters pic T1 and its two teammates, fielded by Tsinghua University's Hephaestus team, made history for China last month by winning gold in the 'Humanoid, adult size' category of the 28-year-old RoboCup Humanoid League in Brazil. 'The Chinese government is actively promoting humanoid robot development,' said Zhao Mingguo, Chief Scientist at Booster Robotics, maker of the T1. 'To advance technology, the government is actively organising competitive events, and this sports games is one such experience.' While some may dismiss such events as gimmicks, industry experts and participants see them as a decisive spur to advance humanoid robots toward practical real-world deployment. A T1 humanoid robot developed by Booster Robotics falls on a football pitch, during a practice in preparation for football competitions at the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games, at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing August 1, 2025. — Reuters pic Although the Hephaestus team would hardly trouble even junior human opposition, Booster Robotics views football as a powerful test of perception, decision-making and control technologies that could later be applied in factories or homes. 'Playing football is a testing and training ground for ... helping us refine our capabilities,' Zhao said. And just as in real life, moving on from the training ground is often a challenge. T1 humanoid robots developed by Booster Robotics in action while surrounded by school children on a football pitch, during a practice in preparation for football competitions at the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games, at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing August 1, 2025. — Reuters pic Hephaestus is building on software developed for Brazil to improve the players' positioning skills. But the performance of humanoid robots still depends to a great extent on environmental variables such as the surface and hardness of the ground and the gradient of any slopes, according to Hephaestus's Chen Penghui. It wouldn't be the first time a football team had visited a new venue and bemoaned the state of the pitch. — Reuters
Reuters
01-08-2025
- Science
- Reuters
Chinese soccer team train for inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games
BEIJING, Aug 1 (Reuters) - On a soccer pitch in Beijing, "T1" is practising shots and taking up positions. T1 is no ordinary player, however, but a gold medal-winning humanoid robot training for the first World Humanoid Robot Games, taking place in Beijing from August 15. T1 is part of a race to take the lead in humanoid robotics, as China looks to become more self-sufficient in advanced technologies. The Games will bring together teams from more than 20 countries for events ranging from track and field to dance and martial arts, as well as practical applications such as industrial handling and medical services. T1 and its two teammates, fielded by Tsinghua University's Hephaestus team, made history for China last month by winning gold in the "Humanoid, adult size" category of the 28-year-old RoboCup Humanoid League in Brazil. "The Chinese government is actively promoting humanoid robot development," said Zhao Mingguo, Chief Scientist at Booster Robotics, maker of the T1. "To advance technology, the government is actively organising competitive events, and this sports games is one such experience." While some may dismiss such events as gimmicks, industry experts and participants see them as a decisive spur to advance humanoid robots toward practical real-world deployment. Although the Hephaestus team would hardly trouble even junior human opposition, Booster Robotics views soccer as a powerful test of perception, decision-making and control technologies that could later be applied in factories or homes. "Playing football is a testing and training ground for ... helping us refine our capabilities," Zhao said. And just as in real life, moving on from the training ground is often a challenge. Hephaestus is building on software developed for Brazil to improve the players' positioning skills. But the performance of humanoid robots still depends to a great extent on environmental variables such as the surface and hardness of the ground and the gradient of any slopes, according to Hephaestus's Chen Penghui. It wouldn't be the first time a soccer team had visited a new venue and bemoaned the state of the pitch.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
University team compete in robot football contest
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. "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. 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. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. More on this story Robots could 'act on intuition' due to new algorithm University spends £2m on wind tunnels for students Plans to expand university backed by council Related internet links University of Hertfordshire RoboCup
BBC News
18-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
University of Hertfordshire team compete in robot contest
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 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. "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 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. 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 said the French and Japanese teams were good, but he did not think that they would do well this takes place from 17-21 July alongside other competitions such as where robots are tested in rescue situations and perform household said the competition was expected to attract 150,000 coverage was also available throughout the event on Twitch and YouTube. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
The Advertiser
05-07-2025
- Science
- The Advertiser
Meet the NUbots, the pint-sized robots taking their soccer skills to Brazil
The robot was looking clumsy that day, the professor said with a hint of fatherly exasperation. The little bot, about a metre tall with a childlike expression and helped by the round camera lenses set above its 3D-printed cheekbones and just below the sticker on his forehead that identified him as Kevin, had stumbled a few times finding his feet on the field. Kevin is one of a handful of identical robots that the University of Newcastle will take to Brazil on July 11 to compete in the 2025 RoboCup. It's an international competition for robotic engineers and their creations to advance the technology in the sector with the aspiration to field a team of robots that can defeat the human World Cup team by 2050. Despite the stumble, he kicked his mini soccer ball cleanly into the goal set up in the laboratory on the University of Newcastle's Callaghan campus. He had dribbled it down the right-hand touchline and punted it into the goal with careful precision, and then stumbled and fell backwards as he did so. There was something endearing in the gesture, something all too human. It was as if, having scored the point, he had thrown himself down in celebration like a robotic Cristiano Ronaldo. Even as his maker stepped in to help him find his paddle-feet again, he sat up with the immediacy of an indestructible kid brushing off a grazed knee. The engineers clapped from their desks as he scored, like proud parents on the sideline. Kevin and his teammates are autonomous. They walk and strategise independently, guided by hundreds of thousands of lines of code and machine learning models their creators have spent their academic careers developing. Others in the league will be governed by a central computer. Others still will show off their teamwork capabilities, but might operate on wheels. Some, like the NUbots, will play soccer. Others will undertake rescue exercises, and some will even fly. In the RoboCup, form follows function as the best minds in the sector strive to make headway and push at the boundaries of modern engineering. "I'm quite honoured and proud to be involved and to have these talented students support the lab for so many years," Professor Stephan Chalup, who founded the university's NUbots team in 2002, said. There was a sense of constant tension among the team as they made their last checks and polished the software that would take Kevin to Brazil next week. It was the nail-biting end of the training season, and now all eyes were on the NUbots team, which has a history of coming to win. They took third place in 2018 RoboCup, won the best in class for dexterity in 2023, produced the best searching robots in 2022, and have featured regularly in the awards listing since joining the league. To walk into their new lab in the campus' engineering block is to walk past a well-stocked trophy cabinet, replete with the robots who won them. Aaron Wong, who undertook his PhD with the NUbots team and now works as an AI engineer for sponsor 4AI Systems, said the real-world applications for the robots were potentially limitless. The bots' vision system - the two cameras that give Kevin, Frankie and the others their childlike appearance - was developed from 4Tel and fellow sponsor 4AI System's technology. It had originally been designed for use on passenger trains. What helps Kevin find and interact with his ball could also help find potential hazards up to a kilometre down the train line, Dr Wong said, and trigger safety protocols to alert the driver. "We can see this area here as a real test bed for what could happen in the real world," he said. "All these new ideas and new algorithms against the best of the best from the rest of the world." Frankie's body costs in the ballpark of $10,000 to build. His brain, though, could be priceless. That dense network of neuron-like firings and triggers, of software commands and responses in the machine, is the real breakthrough for the NUbots. It is also what keeps the team awake at night. "Sometimes, it's three steps forward and two steps back," team leader Clayton Carlon said. "A lot of the time, it's putting out spot fires. It is one system, but there are different sub-systems that can interact with each other in ways you don't expect. So, you think you can just tweak this or make some improvement, but it has this complete butterfly effect." Earlier this month, the NUbots moved out of their windowless lab in the basement. The team is well aware of the jokes about engineers coming out of the dark rooms downstairs, and into the light. They now occupy a new lab on the ground floor, lined with windows. It's meant Kevin and Frankie have a bigger field to play on, and new challenges as a resi;t. It's also meant the team are getting some exposure on the campus. The robots are building a fan base. "We didn't have windows like this when we were in the basement," Ysobel Sims, a senior team member, said. "No one even knew where we were. But now we have people looking in. I'll see people photographing the robots through the windows. I think when we come around to doing recruitments, when the team gets back from the competition, we might have a lot more interest." For Dr Wong, imagining how these robots will be used in the real-world stretches into science fiction. It is to think of the Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997, losing a game to the supercomputer Deep Blue, envisioning a future where chess would one day be played on a phone during an office lunch break. It was never just about seeing Kevin score his goal. The robot was looking clumsy that day, the professor said with a hint of fatherly exasperation. The little bot, about a metre tall with a childlike expression and helped by the round camera lenses set above its 3D-printed cheekbones and just below the sticker on his forehead that identified him as Kevin, had stumbled a few times finding his feet on the field. Kevin is one of a handful of identical robots that the University of Newcastle will take to Brazil on July 11 to compete in the 2025 RoboCup. It's an international competition for robotic engineers and their creations to advance the technology in the sector with the aspiration to field a team of robots that can defeat the human World Cup team by 2050. Despite the stumble, he kicked his mini soccer ball cleanly into the goal set up in the laboratory on the University of Newcastle's Callaghan campus. He had dribbled it down the right-hand touchline and punted it into the goal with careful precision, and then stumbled and fell backwards as he did so. There was something endearing in the gesture, something all too human. It was as if, having scored the point, he had thrown himself down in celebration like a robotic Cristiano Ronaldo. Even as his maker stepped in to help him find his paddle-feet again, he sat up with the immediacy of an indestructible kid brushing off a grazed knee. The engineers clapped from their desks as he scored, like proud parents on the sideline. Kevin and his teammates are autonomous. They walk and strategise independently, guided by hundreds of thousands of lines of code and machine learning models their creators have spent their academic careers developing. Others in the league will be governed by a central computer. Others still will show off their teamwork capabilities, but might operate on wheels. Some, like the NUbots, will play soccer. Others will undertake rescue exercises, and some will even fly. In the RoboCup, form follows function as the best minds in the sector strive to make headway and push at the boundaries of modern engineering. "I'm quite honoured and proud to be involved and to have these talented students support the lab for so many years," Professor Stephan Chalup, who founded the university's NUbots team in 2002, said. There was a sense of constant tension among the team as they made their last checks and polished the software that would take Kevin to Brazil next week. It was the nail-biting end of the training season, and now all eyes were on the NUbots team, which has a history of coming to win. They took third place in 2018 RoboCup, won the best in class for dexterity in 2023, produced the best searching robots in 2022, and have featured regularly in the awards listing since joining the league. To walk into their new lab in the campus' engineering block is to walk past a well-stocked trophy cabinet, replete with the robots who won them. Aaron Wong, who undertook his PhD with the NUbots team and now works as an AI engineer for sponsor 4AI Systems, said the real-world applications for the robots were potentially limitless. The bots' vision system - the two cameras that give Kevin, Frankie and the others their childlike appearance - was developed from 4Tel and fellow sponsor 4AI System's technology. It had originally been designed for use on passenger trains. What helps Kevin find and interact with his ball could also help find potential hazards up to a kilometre down the train line, Dr Wong said, and trigger safety protocols to alert the driver. "We can see this area here as a real test bed for what could happen in the real world," he said. "All these new ideas and new algorithms against the best of the best from the rest of the world." Frankie's body costs in the ballpark of $10,000 to build. His brain, though, could be priceless. That dense network of neuron-like firings and triggers, of software commands and responses in the machine, is the real breakthrough for the NUbots. It is also what keeps the team awake at night. "Sometimes, it's three steps forward and two steps back," team leader Clayton Carlon said. "A lot of the time, it's putting out spot fires. It is one system, but there are different sub-systems that can interact with each other in ways you don't expect. So, you think you can just tweak this or make some improvement, but it has this complete butterfly effect." Earlier this month, the NUbots moved out of their windowless lab in the basement. The team is well aware of the jokes about engineers coming out of the dark rooms downstairs, and into the light. They now occupy a new lab on the ground floor, lined with windows. It's meant Kevin and Frankie have a bigger field to play on, and new challenges as a resi;t. It's also meant the team are getting some exposure on the campus. The robots are building a fan base. "We didn't have windows like this when we were in the basement," Ysobel Sims, a senior team member, said. "No one even knew where we were. But now we have people looking in. I'll see people photographing the robots through the windows. I think when we come around to doing recruitments, when the team gets back from the competition, we might have a lot more interest." For Dr Wong, imagining how these robots will be used in the real-world stretches into science fiction. It is to think of the Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997, losing a game to the supercomputer Deep Blue, envisioning a future where chess would one day be played on a phone during an office lunch break. It was never just about seeing Kevin score his goal. The robot was looking clumsy that day, the professor said with a hint of fatherly exasperation. The little bot, about a metre tall with a childlike expression and helped by the round camera lenses set above its 3D-printed cheekbones and just below the sticker on his forehead that identified him as Kevin, had stumbled a few times finding his feet on the field. Kevin is one of a handful of identical robots that the University of Newcastle will take to Brazil on July 11 to compete in the 2025 RoboCup. It's an international competition for robotic engineers and their creations to advance the technology in the sector with the aspiration to field a team of robots that can defeat the human World Cup team by 2050. Despite the stumble, he kicked his mini soccer ball cleanly into the goal set up in the laboratory on the University of Newcastle's Callaghan campus. He had dribbled it down the right-hand touchline and punted it into the goal with careful precision, and then stumbled and fell backwards as he did so. There was something endearing in the gesture, something all too human. It was as if, having scored the point, he had thrown himself down in celebration like a robotic Cristiano Ronaldo. Even as his maker stepped in to help him find his paddle-feet again, he sat up with the immediacy of an indestructible kid brushing off a grazed knee. The engineers clapped from their desks as he scored, like proud parents on the sideline. Kevin and his teammates are autonomous. They walk and strategise independently, guided by hundreds of thousands of lines of code and machine learning models their creators have spent their academic careers developing. Others in the league will be governed by a central computer. Others still will show off their teamwork capabilities, but might operate on wheels. Some, like the NUbots, will play soccer. Others will undertake rescue exercises, and some will even fly. In the RoboCup, form follows function as the best minds in the sector strive to make headway and push at the boundaries of modern engineering. "I'm quite honoured and proud to be involved and to have these talented students support the lab for so many years," Professor Stephan Chalup, who founded the university's NUbots team in 2002, said. There was a sense of constant tension among the team as they made their last checks and polished the software that would take Kevin to Brazil next week. It was the nail-biting end of the training season, and now all eyes were on the NUbots team, which has a history of coming to win. They took third place in 2018 RoboCup, won the best in class for dexterity in 2023, produced the best searching robots in 2022, and have featured regularly in the awards listing since joining the league. To walk into their new lab in the campus' engineering block is to walk past a well-stocked trophy cabinet, replete with the robots who won them. Aaron Wong, who undertook his PhD with the NUbots team and now works as an AI engineer for sponsor 4AI Systems, said the real-world applications for the robots were potentially limitless. The bots' vision system - the two cameras that give Kevin, Frankie and the others their childlike appearance - was developed from 4Tel and fellow sponsor 4AI System's technology. It had originally been designed for use on passenger trains. What helps Kevin find and interact with his ball could also help find potential hazards up to a kilometre down the train line, Dr Wong said, and trigger safety protocols to alert the driver. "We can see this area here as a real test bed for what could happen in the real world," he said. "All these new ideas and new algorithms against the best of the best from the rest of the world." Frankie's body costs in the ballpark of $10,000 to build. His brain, though, could be priceless. That dense network of neuron-like firings and triggers, of software commands and responses in the machine, is the real breakthrough for the NUbots. It is also what keeps the team awake at night. "Sometimes, it's three steps forward and two steps back," team leader Clayton Carlon said. "A lot of the time, it's putting out spot fires. It is one system, but there are different sub-systems that can interact with each other in ways you don't expect. So, you think you can just tweak this or make some improvement, but it has this complete butterfly effect." Earlier this month, the NUbots moved out of their windowless lab in the basement. The team is well aware of the jokes about engineers coming out of the dark rooms downstairs, and into the light. They now occupy a new lab on the ground floor, lined with windows. It's meant Kevin and Frankie have a bigger field to play on, and new challenges as a resi;t. It's also meant the team are getting some exposure on the campus. The robots are building a fan base. "We didn't have windows like this when we were in the basement," Ysobel Sims, a senior team member, said. "No one even knew where we were. But now we have people looking in. I'll see people photographing the robots through the windows. I think when we come around to doing recruitments, when the team gets back from the competition, we might have a lot more interest." For Dr Wong, imagining how these robots will be used in the real-world stretches into science fiction. It is to think of the Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997, losing a game to the supercomputer Deep Blue, envisioning a future where chess would one day be played on a phone during an office lunch break. It was never just about seeing Kevin score his goal. The robot was looking clumsy that day, the professor said with a hint of fatherly exasperation. The little bot, about a metre tall with a childlike expression and helped by the round camera lenses set above its 3D-printed cheekbones and just below the sticker on his forehead that identified him as Kevin, had stumbled a few times finding his feet on the field. Kevin is one of a handful of identical robots that the University of Newcastle will take to Brazil on July 11 to compete in the 2025 RoboCup. It's an international competition for robotic engineers and their creations to advance the technology in the sector with the aspiration to field a team of robots that can defeat the human World Cup team by 2050. Despite the stumble, he kicked his mini soccer ball cleanly into the goal set up in the laboratory on the University of Newcastle's Callaghan campus. He had dribbled it down the right-hand touchline and punted it into the goal with careful precision, and then stumbled and fell backwards as he did so. There was something endearing in the gesture, something all too human. It was as if, having scored the point, he had thrown himself down in celebration like a robotic Cristiano Ronaldo. Even as his maker stepped in to help him find his paddle-feet again, he sat up with the immediacy of an indestructible kid brushing off a grazed knee. The engineers clapped from their desks as he scored, like proud parents on the sideline. Kevin and his teammates are autonomous. They walk and strategise independently, guided by hundreds of thousands of lines of code and machine learning models their creators have spent their academic careers developing. Others in the league will be governed by a central computer. Others still will show off their teamwork capabilities, but might operate on wheels. Some, like the NUbots, will play soccer. Others will undertake rescue exercises, and some will even fly. In the RoboCup, form follows function as the best minds in the sector strive to make headway and push at the boundaries of modern engineering. "I'm quite honoured and proud to be involved and to have these talented students support the lab for so many years," Professor Stephan Chalup, who founded the university's NUbots team in 2002, said. There was a sense of constant tension among the team as they made their last checks and polished the software that would take Kevin to Brazil next week. It was the nail-biting end of the training season, and now all eyes were on the NUbots team, which has a history of coming to win. They took third place in 2018 RoboCup, won the best in class for dexterity in 2023, produced the best searching robots in 2022, and have featured regularly in the awards listing since joining the league. To walk into their new lab in the campus' engineering block is to walk past a well-stocked trophy cabinet, replete with the robots who won them. Aaron Wong, who undertook his PhD with the NUbots team and now works as an AI engineer for sponsor 4AI Systems, said the real-world applications for the robots were potentially limitless. The bots' vision system - the two cameras that give Kevin, Frankie and the others their childlike appearance - was developed from 4Tel and fellow sponsor 4AI System's technology. It had originally been designed for use on passenger trains. What helps Kevin find and interact with his ball could also help find potential hazards up to a kilometre down the train line, Dr Wong said, and trigger safety protocols to alert the driver. "We can see this area here as a real test bed for what could happen in the real world," he said. "All these new ideas and new algorithms against the best of the best from the rest of the world." Frankie's body costs in the ballpark of $10,000 to build. His brain, though, could be priceless. That dense network of neuron-like firings and triggers, of software commands and responses in the machine, is the real breakthrough for the NUbots. It is also what keeps the team awake at night. "Sometimes, it's three steps forward and two steps back," team leader Clayton Carlon said. "A lot of the time, it's putting out spot fires. It is one system, but there are different sub-systems that can interact with each other in ways you don't expect. So, you think you can just tweak this or make some improvement, but it has this complete butterfly effect." Earlier this month, the NUbots moved out of their windowless lab in the basement. The team is well aware of the jokes about engineers coming out of the dark rooms downstairs, and into the light. They now occupy a new lab on the ground floor, lined with windows. It's meant Kevin and Frankie have a bigger field to play on, and new challenges as a resi;t. It's also meant the team are getting some exposure on the campus. The robots are building a fan base. "We didn't have windows like this when we were in the basement," Ysobel Sims, a senior team member, said. "No one even knew where we were. But now we have people looking in. I'll see people photographing the robots through the windows. I think when we come around to doing recruitments, when the team gets back from the competition, we might have a lot more interest." For Dr Wong, imagining how these robots will be used in the real-world stretches into science fiction. It is to think of the Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997, losing a game to the supercomputer Deep Blue, envisioning a future where chess would one day be played on a phone during an office lunch break. It was never just about seeing Kevin score his goal.
