Robot Monday: The Darmstadt Dribblers

Posted:
07.19.2010

Comments: 0

The Darmstadt Dribblers, a robot soccer team hailing from err, Darmstadt, are the Lionel Messis of the robot soccer world. Or, considering how early robot soccer is in it’s development, perhaps it’s more accurate to say they are that-one-guy-from-medieval-England-who-was-really-good-at-kicking-the-sheep-bladder-arounds of the robot soccer world.

The LV Cup

Anyway, in 2009 the Dribblers’ main man, striker Bruno, won the Luis Vuitton Humanoid Cup, which, apparently, is NOT some overpriced piece of protective athletic wear. Rather, it is some kind of award given to humanoid robot soccer players. Don’t ask me.

Last month, the Dribblers repeated their feat, winning the 2010 Robocup in Singapore. IEEE Spectrum (a wonderful blog) caught up with one of the well-accented members of the team in the above video.

After watching that vid, it should be clear to anyone that robot goalkeeping is nowhere near the level of robot dribbling. Seriously, those robot fools may as well put Robert Greene on the field.