The RoboCup World Championship, the nerdy equivalent of soccer's World Cup in Germany, has a lofty goal: to create androids that can beat soccer's human top players by the year 2050. And oh, do a little artificial intelligence research, too. This year, 350 teams from around the world will compete for the title of best soccer-playing robots. The picture above is Team Osaka's VisiON NEXTA, the best humanoid of the 2005 competition. Link | PopSci Article |