Miniature humanoid robots are getting more impressive by the day: this video shows the Darmstadt Dribblers team in action in the recent 2008 Robocup. And if you notice, they’re really playing like proper autonomous soccer teams. It’s the first year that three-on-three playing action has happened, and thus required some nifty role negotiation and info exchange over Wi-Fi. That’s in addition to avoiding obstacles, finding the ball visually and trying to score goals. Okay, so that opposing team needs a better goalie, but at least watching this robotic version of the beautiful game means you get to see less diving and hissy fits at the referee. Impressive stuff, no? [YouTube.—Thanks Stefan]
