Its seems like decent AI has been “coming soon” for decades now, although there have been evolutionary advancements. Thats where the Robocup comes in, a decathlon of sorts for autonomous AI-controlled robots. The competition, 11 years in the running, is to be held in China this July. The event founders hope to to have their robotic soccer team beat the human world soccer champions at their own game by 2050.

Below is a video of the “pre-game” event, dubbed the German Open. These autonomous robots must traverse an unchartered 3D maze and locate the dolls, simulating a disaster-ridden building. The bots may use different sensing equipment to detect heat, for example, in order to locate the dolls in distress. Its hard to say exactly whats going on in the video but surely future coverage of the event will be a bit more in-depth.

Click more to watch the video.

link: Rescue robots compete to save dolls in distress [New Scientist]

Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Robotics //