Robot with AMAZING skills: it can dribble like a professional player

Have you heard of RoboCup? It’s a robot competition that has been going on since 1997, featuring a wide range of technological advances in robots and other details.

Set to take place in Bordeaux, France, in July, RoboCup 2023 promises even more new features. The idea behind this competition is to create a team that can defeat the champions of the Human Football World Cup by 2050. In other words, there is still a long way to go, but progress is being made steadily.

Although it may seem far away, robot developers are focused on a new mission: to take part in the challenge of perfect dribbling with a soccer ball. And the highlight will be MIT’s Dribblebot, the robot that promises to perform this move perfectly.

See the robot in action with its dribbling

It looks more like a dog, but promises to deliver good dribbling. And it doesn’t seem intimidated by other competitors, even the machine’s co-leader seems to be quite excited. Check it out here:

Yandong Ji also spoke about the initiative and his expectations for the robot:

“Previous approaches simplify the dribbling problem by making a flat, hard terrain modeling assumption. The movement is also designed to be more static; the robot is not trying to run and manipulate the ball simultaneously.

This is where the most difficult dynamics come into the control problem. We address this by extending recent advances that have enabled better outdoor locomotion into this composite task that combines aspects of locomotion and dexterous manipulation.”

O Dribblebot It does not have wheels on its feet, which shows the difference in its design. The idea seems to give stability to the robot’s legs and make the dribbling as good as possible.

Despite appearing to be a major breakthrough, the robot still has some mobility issues. For example, stairs and slopes seem to be a problem for it. Interestingly, those working on the project have already promised that the changes will be made gradually.

Do you believe that a dribbling robot could beat a human soccer team in the future? Leave your opinion in the comments.