New soccer robot unveiled

Team Osaka, a group of robot-related concerns, has unveiled a new soccer-playing humanoid robot that will compete in the RoboCup tournament opening this week in Suzhou, China.

Vision Vgos stands 455 mm (18 inches) tall, has 21 degrees of freedom (moving joints) and is covered with a soft material to absorb shocks. The exterior was designed by Tomotaka Takahashi of Robo-Garage in Kyoto.

The bipedal bot boasts faster reflexes, better dribbling skills and better responsiveness during play than its predecessors. Team Osaka has been developing the little footballers since 2003, winning several championships in RoboCup. There is a clip of Vision going up against German robots in 2007 here; those are significantly faster and more coordinated than when I saw them in 2005!

The goal of RoboCup is to create a team of soccer-playing robots that can beat the best humans in the sport by 2050.