Mechanical engineers from Virginia Tech won the world cup for robotic soccer this Sunday. They were the only team to enter from the United States and they won first place in the adult sized and child sized robots categories at the RoboCup 2011.
The full size humanoid CHARLI-2 made its public debut at the competition and won the adult sized robot soccer match final against the Robo Erectus from Singapore. He scored a penalty kick to win the match 1-0. He had some early setbacks including an accidental decapitation which was fixed with super glue.
CHARLI-2 also won the Best Humanoid Award, a.k.a Louis Vuitton Humanoid Cup, the award is considered the most prestigious honour for humanoid robots and it was the first time that an American built robot had won. The RoboCup crystal trophy has also avoided the United States so far having spent seven years in Japan and two years in Germany. It was CHARLI-2’s honour to bring home the trophy.
The child sized DARWIn-OP or Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence was developed in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania. It won the first place in the Humanoid Kid Size competition.
The ultimate purpose of the annual RoboCup tournament is to build a team of robots that can play soccer against humans by 2050.