The Osaka Kid: better, stronger, faster

He's back, and better than ever.

The wizards at Team Osaka, mentioned in an earlier post, have again unveiled an improved version of their champion soccer-playing robot, Vision. The past three versions came out winners in their RoboCup robot soccer tournament category. RoboCup's purpose is to develop a team of robot footballers that can beat the best humans at the sport by 2050 (and then take over the world...maybe).

Vision 4G can run 30% faster than its previous incarnation, its joints have 40% stronger torque, its has a lighter CPU and a new forward-looking camera, in addition to its 360-degree head cam, to better track the ball. There's a cool video of 4G showing off here.