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Toys Technology

AIBO Robot Dog Soccer Competition 146

Posted by michael from the bend-it-like-aibo dept.
BrianWCarver writes "The Washington Post has an article about teams of college students who program Sony AIBO Robotic Dogs to play soccer against each other in teams of four. While Beckham's job is not yet jeopardized, the cool thing from an AI perspective is that 'once the humans flip the switch, the robots are on their own.' They compete in RoboCup whose stated goal is to 'by the year 2050, develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world soccer champion team.' RoboCup also has competitions with wheeled soccer bots (of varying designs) and have a humanoid league in which the Honda ASIMO appeared. The students in the above article are preparing for the four-legged international championship coming up in July of 2003 in Padua, Italy."
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AIBO Robot Dog Soccer Competition More

AIBO Robot Dog Soccer Competition

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  • Dupe! (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    RoboCup 2003 [slashdot.org]
    • Maybe what we need is a Robot /. Moderator Competition. I'm sure even Minsky's students have enough time to put together a robot that won't dupe the front page.

  • Well... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Jack Comics ( 631233 ) *
    At least the humanoid robots currently planned should be better looking in sports bras after a soccer game than some of the women currently playing professional soccer... *Shudder*.
    • You obviously haven't seen the Brazillian soccer team photos floating around have you?
    • If they are dogs, you can add one more obstacle: Just put lamp post on the side of the field and the dogs that stop to pee are the winners since they really implement the AI of a dog!!!!

  • Aibo is only good for one thing... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Teledildonics. [jargon.net]
  • "The worst fad has been these stupid little robots," said Minsky.
    • "The worst fad has been these stupid little professors stuck in their ways. Why did anyone listen to them back then?"
      --one Sony Aibo speaking to another, circa 2015.

  • Solution to Earlier problem. (Score:5, Funny)

    by thrillbert ( 146343 ) * on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @04:20PM (#5948540) Homepage
    In this earlier story [slashdot.org] we are told that AI is going no where due to the fact that graduate students are spending 3 years fixing broken robots instead of programming them.

    I think if they give up those big robots, buy some Aibos in bulk, they can skip the repair stage, or at least shorten it quite a bit. Of course, if they get them at Circuit City, they can get the extended guarantee and not have to worry about repairs at all!!!

    ---
    Never call a man a fool; borrow from him.

    • Re:Solution to Earlier problem. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by KrispyKringle ( 672903 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @04:25PM (#5948598)
      It's probably relevant that some people believe that in order for an AI to acheive human-like awareness, it will have to perceive and experience the world as humans do. I personally don't subscribe to this; clearly, humans who are disabled or incapacitated and perceive the world from a wheelchair or bed are no less creative or intelligent than those who do not, but it is still an interesting point.

      And even if AI software is not progressing because of wasted time on robots, those robots are still useful. Can you really picture an Aibo bought "in bulk" beating humans at soccer?

      • Humans on a wheelchair still hear, see, smell and feel the world around them. They have restricted movement, but still can move with help. I think comatose humans would be much nearer to the AI that doesn't experience the world.

        An artificial environment probably won't take you very far. I'm not sure if there are any well known humans who spent all their life in their room or house, but I doubt that be as creative and intelligent as those who could have a normal life.

        • I'm not sure if there are any well known humans who spent all their life in their room or house, but I doubt that be as creative and intelligent as those who could have a normal life.

          I'm offended!
          I am just as creative and just as intelligent as your people that have a so-called `normal life'!

          I'm going to go tell the leprechaun that lives in my wall about you, and he'll make you sorry you said bad things about my life-style! I recommend you start carrying an umbrella when you go to your so-called `o

      • Can you really picture an Aibo bought "in bulk" beating humans at soccer?

        Incredibly enough, I used to work for a company that used to make robots (Nomadic Technologies) who is no longer in business, mainly because the owners hated competition.. and it was obvious why.

        But back to the point... I have seen some amazing things done with robots and a little LISP programming. Robots working in conjunction with one another to acheive a common goal. And of course, the basic "learning of a laberynth", which is
        • The reason for my belief is non technical; robots do not have egos and will work better as a team.

          Also working to their advantage, steel skeletons will shatter brittle human bones with every tackle.
    • In this earlier story [slashdot.org] we are told that AI is going no where due to the fact that graduate students are spending 3 years fixing broken robots instead of programming them.

      I assume you're referencing Marvin Minsky's quote:

      "The worst fad has been these stupid little robots...Graduate students are wasting 3 years of their lives soldering and repairing robots, instead of making them smart. It's really shocking."

      Minsky's whining fails to take into account that different people have different int
  • there be several bikini clad beauties supporting the brazillian team or will I be wasting my time perving ... I mean watching this

  • Dont forget about R2 (Score:5, Funny)

    by aardwolf204 ( 630780 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @04:22PM (#5948561)
    R2D2 can now be a proud soccer mom
  • AI really has gone to the dogs.

  • maybe, just maybe (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by kupo zero ( 581452 )
    Maybe it is more interesting than REAL soccer is. *ducks from flames thrown by soccer zealots*
    • Well its certainly more interesting than watching a bunch of drug powered freaks trying to batter each other into submission in American football
      • Sports are all relative. I know many who are addicted to any sport, some to just one or two, and some who would like nothing more than the entire genre to get whiped out by a freak black hole. I only follow Football and Baseball but have a respect for other sports.

        Racing on the hand, now that's what I call boring!

        "Hey, are they still going in a circle as fast as they can?"

        "Yep."

        "Yeehaw!"

        • Nonono, that's NASCAR you're talking about. Granted there are a few courses that aren't eliptical, but F1 racing is at least somewhat better. I do think it's a waste of gas, though.
      • Well for a while I was thinking that sports suck in general, but now I might actually watch a little football again, you actually made it sound entertaining.
      • Where are you from? Most english speaking nations have a rugby variant that makes American football players look like wimps.
      • Perhaps I should have said more interesting than AMERICAN soccer is. European soccer (go Barca!) is a helluva a lot more interesting, mainly because there are real fans, and talented players.

  • World Cup by 2050? Bah! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Gefiltefish11 ( 611646 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @04:25PM (#5948599)

    When a humanoid soccer-playing machine can be developed such that a simple slide tackle (a legal maneuver) can snap limbs, the world cup is a sure bet. This will take far less than 47 years. In fact, drop the "humanoid" requirement and we could be there next year.

    Sometimes there's an elegant beauty in simple brute force.
    • Look, I can take a tank out onto the playing field right now, and I doubt that any players are going to get very far with the ball.

      My point; of course we have machines that can outperform humans, had em for a while. But they can only outperform us within very limited criteria.

      for instance, a backhoe can dig much faster than I, but I don't think it can dig as precisely as I can. A car can go much faster than me, but not up a very steep rock face.

      so I think the point of a robotic soccer game is to show a m
  • If these robots accidentally collide or tackle someone in soccer, forget about an instant red-card - it would probably crush bones.

  • Will they act like soccer players? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Neil Watson ( 60859 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @04:27PM (#5948620) Homepage
    Will the robots be primadonnas who crack during penalty kicks in extra time? Will they be programmed to roll around on the ground in a dramatic display of bad acting?

  • Yes but... (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by Mr. Sketch ( 111112 ) *
    Can they Bend it like Beckham [yahoo.com]? Very good movie, by the way.
  • Robotic grass growing.

    Couldn't they think of a game more exciting than Soccer? Or is this just the final indictment of this stultifying "sport" for people who can't afford a stick?

  • Wow... ambitious (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jat850 ( 589750 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @04:29PM (#5948644)
    This is a very ambitious goal for the RoboCup team ... it will require great strides in so many areas: things like image recognition, mechanical and electrical engineering, and a severe amount of artificial intelligence breakthroughs. Soccer is not just a game that can be "solved" like checkers, tic-tac-toe, and awari are, and chess will be. It requires a much higher level of artificial intelligence (decision making, goal-based planning, etc.)

    It would be very neat to see something like this happen, and I know 47 years is a long time, but it's still an incredibly ambitious goal :)
    • Hmm ... on second thought, I suppose a game of soccer is probably less a question of goal-based solving, and more utility-based planning.
    • Soccer is not just a game that can be "solved" like checkers...It requires a much higher level of artificial intelligence (decision making, goal-based planning, etc.)

      It would be very neat to see something like this happen, and I know 47 years is a long time, but it's still an incredibly ambitious goal

      So, is your choice of words deliberate, or the result of subliminal suggestion?

    • Chess is not a solvable game. There are more possible chess positions than there are atoms in the universe. You'd have to build a computer that could hold a position per atom of memory space to solve it. Thus you'd have to build a computer larger than the universe. Either that, or a computer that could store more than one postion per atom. Say a system was possible where one could store 100 positions per atom of space. You'd still have a computer 1/100th the size of the universe.
      • Yep, you're exactly right, I made a mistake with that statement :)
      • That is only true is chess is somehow "maximally complex" by which I mean that the most efficient algorithm for calculating the optimal move is a lookup table or exhaustive search. This is almost certainly not the case. Whether chess is solvable, then, is an unanswered question -- it may still be complex enough that no winning strategy can be found.

        "Solving" chess will require a radical departure from current algorithms, which are basically finite depth exhaustive searches plus heuristics to throw out le
    • I really am not sure how impressive this would be. Obviously there will be the initial struggle to make a fast enough and agile enough robot soccer player that can compete on the field safely with human soccer players.

      However unlike trying to put together the perfect Human soccer team with the proper variables you can custom build the skills of the robots at will. IE nothing to stop having a team that can mimick all major styles of play and to effortlessly shift between them.

      Physical capabilities need not
    • Actually, a lot of the AI research has been done already - by entertainment companies such as Electronic Arts. (Ever played FIFA 98, or 2000, or whatever year it happened to be?) The computer players have (moderate) intelligence, and do make plays of their own. Of course, they "walk" on two legs, don't exist, and have a collective mind, but I'm sure the basic algorithms could be used in AIBOs. (AFAIK, correct me if I'm wrong.) /Sean/

  • Top 7 Reasons to like Robot Dog Soccer (Score:5, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @04:31PM (#5948666)
    7. This will get the attention of some geeks; maybe enough to draw attention away from "Star Trek" and cause this dead franchise to finally go away.

    6. The moment when the goaltender says "Danger, Will Robinson!" is priceless.

    5. Lots of fun game play alterations when robot bones are tossed onto the field.

    4. Only a matter of time before they allow Taz-Bot, Die-Sector, Vlad, and the rest of our Battlebots friends onto the field. Then the fun really starts.

    3. Gets rid of the problem of urination on the field that is plagues any event with real soccer players or real dogs.

    2. Americans love dogs. Americans hate soccer. So, this is likely to move soccer from #74 to #63 on the ESPN-2 ratings.

    1. Two words: Mecha-Aibo

    • 2. Americans love dogs. Americans hate soccer. So, this is likely to move soccer from #74 to #63 on the ESPN-2 ratings.

      No damn it, that will just be more competetion for the NHL playoffs at #61, right behind billiard trick shots and the national spelling bee.

      • Americans don't hate soccer, American journalists hate soccer.
        The sports media is controlled by sports writers who only understand the so called major sports they grew up with. The MLS which is still not a mature league gets 100,000+ people per week at their games. The US national team is ranked 10th in the world, FIFA World Ranking [fifa.com] ,and they regularly draw more than 50,000 per game. People have been saying for years that once the US national team is good the media will cover them better. Well, they're goo

    • yukkkkkk!


      US football (soccer) players urinate on the pitch during games? "(Gets rid of the problem of urination on the field that is plagues any event with real soccer players )"... No wonder football (soccer) isn't popular in the USA. I never understood why the beautiful game wasn't as popular there as in the rest of the world, now I understand. Uggg.
  • then they're serving us our coffee, and before you know it, they won't open the pod bay doors, they've turned Skynet against us, they've completely commandeered the Forbin Project, and Brent Spiner is being paid more than anyone except Patrick Stewart. When will we learn?!?

  • long tradition (Score:4, Interesting)

    by AbdullahHaydar ( 147260 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @04:32PM (#5948670) Homepage
    These guys are following a long tradition (in technology years) of soccer-playing robots.

    From this article [robotbooks.com]:

    "This year's challenge was to build soccer-playing robots. An unfortunate choice perhaps, given the possibility of confusion between RoboCon and RoboCup. The latter is another Japanese-inspired initiative, whose goal is also to build soccer-playing robots (Australasian, 30 August 1997). But there are clear differences between the two. RoboCon is based on mechanics, whereas RoboCup is more electrical, being mainly to do with communications and software. Also RoboCup robots are completely autonomous. (RoboCon robots) are remote controlled."

  • Interesting quote (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kiwimate ( 458274 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @04:33PM (#5948675) Journal
    [The team]...changed the "confidence level" before shooting. Instead of looking for a perfect opportunity, the dogs would shoot faster and more often. It worked.

    So what they've done is end up with looser play and lower hit rates as opposed to higher accuracy. That's fine for winning a soccer tournament (and please understand -- I'm by no means discounting the incredible coolness of what's going on here), but how would this translate in the real world?

    Here's something even more cool to think about...just imagine if you could program the dogs to adapt their style of play over the course of the tournament (learning) and then observe if they "naturally" tended to this style of play in any case.
  • We just heard from on high (ahem, hello Mr. Minsky) that this whole exercise is pointless and stupid!
  • ... this was going on (in part) upstairs from a lecture by none other than Neal Stephenson.

    Sweet day at CMU, I'd say.

  • um, not cheating = "cool"? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SuperBanana ( 662181 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @04:43PM (#5948764)
    the cool thing from an AI perspective is that 'once the humans flip the switch, the robots are on their own.'

    How else do you hold an "AI robot" contest? Humans mucking about with the things is called cheating. If they get disabled or whatnot, of COURSE they should be left alone.

    I hate robot/AI contests which are dumbed down- watch a robot 'soccer' match, and often you'll see volunteers putting robots back on the right course when they've boxed themselves into a corner and such...like the programmers/designers shouldn't have to be 'troubled' by such things as getting trapped by two walls, or all the contestants have such miserably designed/programmed robots that they fail left and right.. Everyone wants to work on the "chase the ball" routine, but nobody wants to work on the un-sexy, nuts-and-bolts, "keep from smacking the wall and staying there" routine.

    In the real world, there are no magical hands that pick you up and flip you around and set you going with a pat on the CPU...and what every robotics person calls "simplifying the problem", I call "cheating". This constant cheating has led to a field which is incapable, still, of dealing with the simplest problems but can solve these wonderful complex ones. The result is a lot of electromechanical garbage that's simply unuseable in anything even remotely resembling the real world.

    • Who said you get to write the rules?

      For a long time, your parents set you upright with a pat on the head everytime you fell while learning to walk, and you had the benefit of millions of years of evolution designing a body and brain nearly hardwired to walk.

      I think you dramatically underestimate how much harder avoiding "turtle on back" failure modes is than chasing the ball (or playing soccer, or any other game with a well defined set of rules). To do it well probably requires an array of sensors compra
    • Obviously you haven't had the pleasure of watching a 12 month old child for an extended period of time. At that age my son would often get himself into predicaments that he could not extract himself from. I remember one time when he managed to squeeze himself under a leather ottoman and wound up with his arms and legs flailing out from each of the its four sides. Needless to say, the magic hand of dad had to come to his rescue.

      What's so amazing with kids is their relentless passion of exploring and lear
    • this would make the game completely impossible for new teams. at the US Open only CMU and Cornell even had working systems in the SSL F-180 league...

      RoboCup is still "just getting started". it takes alot of resourses/time/money to build a working system, and we want to ENCOURAGE new teams to enter, not discourage them.

      there are many other rules that would be implemented if this weren't the case. Full autonomy is a biggie. there are other ones such as rules on touching and so fourth.
      -sergei/Cornell BigRed'

  • Automate the World! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Only a real geek would take the time to automate an athletic event.

    1. Create robotic soccer dogs
    2. Replace human athletes
    3. ?
    4. Profit!

  • Top 10 Robot Soccer Dog Team Names (Score:5, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @04:45PM (#5948790)
    10. Drooldroids
    9. Dyna-Mutts
    8. Cyberpups
    7. WinterMalaMutes
    6. FIDO-Net
    5. 3L33T T3RR313R's
    4. The B-9 K-9's
    3. See-Threepoodle's
    2. The Borgzoi
    1. BITches
  • on the pronunciation:

    How soon will we see the "Robot-Coupe," (Fr. kitchen appliance, pron. Ro-bo-Koop') in which the losing team gets tossed into a Cuisinart?

  • about AI going nowhere. Something to do with Graduate students wasting time soldering and repairing robots . . .

  • ...would AIBOs be _vastly_ more interesting if they had weapons? :)

    Something more along the lines of 'AMEE' from that awful movie "Red Planet," perhaps...only not psychotic.

  • Ironic (Score:3, Interesting)

    by t0ny ( 590331 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @04:51PM (#5948847)
    weird how there was a different slashdot article today saying how instead of working on AI people where wasting time making little robots, then lo and behold, here is an article about stupid little robots!!
  • The game is called football . Check out FIFA's official site [fifa.com] if you don't believe me.

    Why can't people agree to use that name in international context, and call the american game "american football", although in it the ball is moved around (AFAIK) mostly with hands?

    • I'm sure Bush has something to do with this.

  • A similar competition (Score:4, Interesting)

    by meowsqueak ( 599208 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @04:59PM (#5948920)
    This competition [fira.net] is similar, although in my opinion has more engineering merit. I spent a year developing a team for the 2002 Korea competition but unfortunately we were beset with a poor budget (NZ$5000 - things got tight) and outrageous shipping delays (6 months for motors) and never completed the team.

    It was interesting because not only did you have to develop the AI to allow the robots to 'play the game', but you also had to develop a computer colour vision system to 'read' the state of play, as well as a suitable control system for the robots themselves. The use of H bridges and avoiding burning out the motors or circuitry when suddenly reversing direction brought in some interesting research from the university's mechanical engineering department. Wireless comms also came into it, with a one-way FM link. A great project bringing many different areas into one 'arena'.

    FIRA has several different classes of competition (we were working towards Mirosot) including a 'simulation only' class.
    • Fira sounds very much like exactly like RoboCup. now, i don't know which one came first or if they're in competition or anything, but i fail to see why you thing it has more engineering merit. FYI, RoboCup also has quite a few leagues: AIBO, SSL, Rescue, Simulation (at CMU they had a REALLY cool interface), and a bunch more). so, if you can provide any specific examples of rules, it would be much appreciated.

      The second paragraph is a necessity for any robot soccer-system of this type. For wireless, some SS
  • develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world soccer champion team.

    Sure they'll need some basic programming to be made autonomous but judging from a lot of what I've seen of professional soccer these robots [robotwars.com] should be able to give a human team a pretty good game!
  • After reading the headline, I thought this article was about people playing soccer with the AIBO robot dogs - in my opinion, a far more fun sport than robot dogs playing soccer with soccer balls.

  • I was there (Score:3, Insightful)

    by daves ( 23318 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @05:28PM (#5949178) Journal
    My son and I went out for the day on Sunday to see what was up. The Aibos were a hoot to watch, but nothing to write home about in terms of playing soccer. They had trouble keeping track of themselves and the ball at the same time.

    According to the lead researcher (the lady in the left in the picture), the dogs communicate with each other on their position and the location of the ball. You could see some cooperation in their actions, but not much. They would sometimes spend some time deciding who would go for the ball, but I never saw anything like a coordinated pass on a breakaway.

    They don't yet track the opposing players, and got too easily hung up on obstructions, like the corner of the goal. A dribbling player would stop every couple of steps, look around to check the location of the corner posts, and lose the ball.

    In terms of soccer play, the smaller, wheeled league was much more impressive. The single camera gave the team a comprehensive view of the field, ball, and opposing players. Every robot had an arrangement of colored dots on top to identify the player and it's position. The players were fast (probably a 1-2 second dash from one end of the field to the other), and were effective at dribbling (with a spinning bar that spun the golf ball toward the robot) and shooting (with a kick bar).

    There was not a lot of depth to the competition. The 3rd-4th place consolation game consisted of a whole lot of nothing going on. Hopefully, more schools will get involved for future research.

    • Yeah, those were our robots in the 3rd-4th place game. Afterwards, I was thinking along the same lines as Minsky. That being said, I'm about to hike into the lab for an evening of hacking...

      You're right about the small league being more exciting, though. The dogs really can't do anything, but if you watch two good teams in the small league, you'll see a much better, more human game.
  • What if those soccer robots develope their own conscience, start killing the humans, and send a robot back to the past to kill the leader of the human resistance?


    • > What if those soccer robots develope their own conscience, start killing the humans

      I think you mean "consciousness". If they develop a "conscience" then they'll behave OK.

      > and send a robot back to the past to kill the leader of the human resistance?

      No problem: we'll just appoint the guy who invented them to be the leader of the human resistance.

  • Isn't this a waste [slashdot.org] of valuable AI grad student time?
  • that minsky was complaining about.

  • Robot Soccer's Boring! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Greyfox ( 87712 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @05:36PM (#5949240) Homepage Journal
    Lets mount weapons on them and have them battle to the death!

    The couple of robot battle shows Comedy Central and Discovery ran a while back were boring because the robots weren't autonomous. Any hardware monkey can make a remote controlled killing machine. Autonomous ones would be way more interesting! And if they just happened to go mad and start killing the audience, well that just makes it more interesting, doesn't it?

    I think I must be channeling Professor Farnsworth...

    • Re:Robot Soccer's Boring! (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I tried to enter such a competition, but they wouldn't let me in. Screw those guys! I'm going to build my own Autonomous Robot Battle show. With Blackjack. And hookers! In fact, forget about the show!
  • Dupe! Dupe! Dupe! Dupe! Dupe! Dupe!

    Here. [slashdot.org]
  • I should have looked into this before trying to play soccer with my pet dog (living flesh & blood) and consequently breaking his leg. Poor thing now has his front leg wrapped up with a stint and does a goose leg walk. My dog, Doc loves to chase after the soccer ball. So my wife and I played keep-away from the dog Saturday. It was a glorious day, warm sunlight and a faint cool breeze. So my wife lobs the ball up in the air to my left, I take about six quick strides to the ball as it is still in the air,

  • For those of you who would like to do research with real world data, but don't want to spend time actually building the robot before you can use it - the Aibo is a great platform.

    There's a free software development kit from Sony [aibo.com] as well as an application framework [tekkotsu.org] to get you jump-started.

  • I used to compete in RoboCup (for 3 years with Cornell) in the Small Size league. I believe the writer of this post is referring to small size (f-180) bots when he uses the term "wheeled soccer robots." I'd like to point out that very few small size robots use two wheels to move around any more. Most use omni-directional drive which consists of a number of spinning balls on the bottom of the robot which allow them to move in any direction at any time. This is very little to do with this post and might be se
    • yo yo. sergei of the current team (cs) here. we're very sorry for the embarrasing game. we were halfway done porting the 2002 ai into our brand new framework and
      a) our defense was not tested
      b) we had not offense
      c) our vision was messed up (old 2002 vision...)

      we promise a much better showing at italy :)
      -sergei

  • Aaaaarrggghh! (Score:3, Funny)

    by FunWithHeadlines ( 644929 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @07:10PM (#5949994) Homepage
    Whatever you do, don't let Marvin Minsky [slashdot.org] hear of this!

    ------

  • This AIBO competition has been going on for a few years now. I remember reading about it a few RoboCups back. The coolest thing at the time was to read that the team that eventually won the AIBO competition didn't just win by programming the best path algorithms and ball recognition algorithms, they went all out and re-programmed the core AIBO mechanics to make it 'walk' differently in a way that helped it manouvre more cleverly and outpace it's competition to the ball.

    Very cool stuff.
  • I wonder if we will see an advanced Aibo tomorrow. Maybe Aibo is going to try to bite Neo for stepping on its tail.
  • and serves drinks at half time? R2D2?
  • As long as the robots can't do the irrational things human players do, it'll be a sterile thing. An elbow at the wrong place, a late tackle or similar things can add some charge to a game. Anyone who doesn't believe that should have seen last night's CL game between Inter and AC Milan. The emotinal factor made it a better game.
  • I really really want a dog sled pulled by like a hundred Aibos. They would look so cute in snow shoes.
  • As previously reported on Slashdot, Sony has opened up the API for the AIBO, and it can be programmed in C++. My lab has created an application development framework for the AIBO called Tekkotsu [tekkotsu.org] that we think people will find helpful. The code is open source and GPLed. Visit Tekkotsu.org for an overview, downloads, demos, and documentation.
  • Okay, the first one is okay, but I'm waiting for the fifth.

    Honda ASIMO-V should be really cool.

  • At the CeBit show here in Sydney, Australia last week, this mob [megarobotics.com] were demoing a little 'joint' motor and some control gear. You buy a bunch of them, assemble them together in different shapes ('humanoid' and 'doggie' seem to feature heavily), program it up and make a robot.

    Reasonably interesting stuff, granted, but the really funny bit was the big-screen demo movie they had running on the stand. A little robot built out of some of these things and a controller board dragging a big pink Aibo ball around, ta

  • It seems Sony is hosting an OPEN-R/AIBO programming seminar, and it's free to the public!

    Lookee here [aibo.com].

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