Cutting Edge Robotics Utilize Soccer

"Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University are betting that putting humans and robots on the same soccer team will encourage the kind of cooperation that leads to understanding.

The researchers have made a human-size version of their soccer-playing robots by basing the robots on Segway scooters, and they are working on a set of rules for Segway soccer, a game designed to be played by mixed teams of the robots and humans riding Segways.

The project is designed to allow researchers to look at human-robot interactions in which humans and robots are on nearly equal footing, said Manuela Veloso, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. The two types of players will have nearly the same acceleration, the same top speed, the same turning abilities, and will use the same ball manipulation device, she said.

The setup makes it possible to explore questions like how and when humans and robot should communicate, and how they should divide a common task, said Veloso. "There are many really interesting challenges here that we now have the opportunity of investigating," she said.

This promises to translate to any application that requires multiple robots to work with people in real-time, said Veloso. Examples are autonomous robot vehicles sharing the roadway with human-driven vehicles, robot building construction crews, search and rescue operations, and space exploration. These tasks all require real-time decision-making and action, she said..."

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