DARwin-OP, CHARLI-2 humanoids make history at RoboCup 2011, ‘U-S-A!’ chants ensue (video)

While most American sports fans were busy celebrating a global Cup victory over Brazil this weekend, an indubitably more compelling soccer tournament was drawing to an in depth in Istanbul — site of RoboCup 2011. Virginia Tech’s Team DARwin made history at this year’s event, becoming the 1st US squad to bring home top honors in both the child Size and Adult Size competitions. The petite DARwin-OP humanoid danced circles round the lightweight class, while the five-foot CHARLI-2 demoralized Robo Erectus within the big boys’ final with a final-minute penalty kick. In its international debut, the CHARLI-2 (pictured, in a moment of Zen, at the right) also earned the vaunted Louis Vuitton Humanoid Cup, ending a nine-year period dominated by teams from Germany and Japan. These programmed Peles won’t the main graceful of strikers, but RoboCup organizers remain convinced that autonomous bots may be ready to compete with human athletes by 2050 — which can just give us enough time to develop a taste for soccer. Dribble past the break to determine Team DARwin in action, together with a different clip from the BBC.

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This post is tagged: american sports, international debut, lightweight class, soccer tournament, world cup victory