Bremen, Germany - German robots dominated another sort of football tournament at the weekend in Germany: the RoboCup 2006.
The June 14-18 event was open to engineers from around the world who developed autonomous machines that can move around under their own power and make their own decisions. Some are little more than boxes on wheels but others are human-shaped and as big as a teenager.
German robot teams won in 11 of 33 categories, including football and rescuing people from disasters. The event attracted 440 teams from 36 nations.
China came second with nine first places and Japan finished third by winning six events, organisers said. The world event is organized by the RoboCup Federation in a different nation each year.
'The German robots played better and had superior tactics,' said German Science Minister Annette Schavan.
The engineers were to spend Monday at a forum to study why some robots did better than others at the event in the northern city of Bremen. The organisers hope that by 2050, the winners of the RoboCup will be able to beat the human World Cup champions.
'I think that is realistic,' said Ubbo Visser, a lecturer at the International University of Bremen's technology centre, 'if you consider that there was not much more time between the Wright Brothers' first flight and the landing on the moon.'
Football is described as a useful test for robot science because its elements include movement, strategy and vision.
While most of the football robots can dribble, they are not fast. They move at the pace of marionettes.
Next up is a tournament organized by another group, the Federation of International Robosoccer Associations (FIRA), in the German city of Dortmund starting June 30. More than 60 teams from 20 nations have entered for it.
