From 13 to 19 July 2005 will be held in Osaka (Japan) Robocup 9th, world cup team of robots. Three tournaments will pit teams of robots among them: a football tournament, another in the field of rescue and the last for teams of children for educational purposes. Cup football already distinguish several “leagues”: humanoid robots, robots for small and medium-size, four-legged robots and simulations.

The aim of Robocup is ambitious: “to create by 2050 a team fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win the World Cup football – that of humans, that is.

The designers are given in all cases the means to succeed. The “Team Osaka”, who won the tournament “humanoids” Football in Lisbon in 2004, is composed of robots called Vision, which does indeed measure only 38 cm high, but have a 360 ° and know recognize and seek the ball, sketch gestures of defense and lead all the ball towards the opposing goal. Shu Ishiguro, laboratory manager “robotic intelligent” University of Osaka, said he was “very confident” about the laboratory’s capacity to achieve the target set for 2050.