We’ve been hearing a lot about Ireland’s ‘robotic’ football team today, but what exactly does that mean and what’s wrong with our lads in Poznan?
Why is the Irish team being called robotic?
Well, they’re not talking about the actual Irish football team. The lads in Poznan are humans (to the best of our knowledge), so all the talk of a robotic Irish team is actually about a team of Irish robots that play football. Funnily enough, we’re pretty damn good at it.
What? A team of robots? Like i-Robot?
The robots aren’t as big as the machines in i-Robot. They look a bit more toy-like, although at €5,000 a pop we’re sure the creators of the football playing bots wouldn’t be too happy with that description.
And you say we’re pretty decent at it?
Let’s put it this way. If our lads in Poznan do as well as the Irish robotic team did in their version of the Euros, then the country might just come to a standstill.
RoboEireann is the official name of our national robotic team and they’re controlled by an inter-disciplinary team of researchers from the Department of Electronic Engineering, Department of Computer Science and the Hamilton Institute in NUI Maynooth, Kildare. You can see who exactly is involved in the project here.
Our team finished second in the German Open last month, which is the robotic equivalent of the Euros. The world champions are a team called B-Human, from Bremen in Germany, and they beat our lads in the final. So not a bad result at all we think you’ll agree.
So what exactly goes down at these robotic football matches?
Well, instead of 11 men on the pitch there are four robots. Three of the bots take position in the outfield while one stays in goals – naturally. As for the rules of the game, they’re somewhat similar to normal football as robots can get sin binned and sent off.
That’s gas… So how are they controlled?
Funnily enough, human hands do not control the bots at all. They have been programmed to operate independently of human control, so this means they do everything that a regular footballer does by using internal software. They can pass, shoot and even get up off their arse when they fall over, however, they get up about as quick as Didier Drogba.
And what’s the point of all this?
The robot football league actually allows the researchers to present advances in robotic technology to the public in a way that will keep us interested and entertained. In fairness, if you watch the video below you’ll be surprised at how advanced these little bots really are and seeing as there’s some football thrown in, you won’t get bored.
However, according to the Irish Times, the ultimate goal is to have a robotic team capable of competing with their human equivalent by the middle of the century. If you’re in the Maynooth area today, you can check out the little fellas in the Hamilton Institute until 4pm.
So if it all goes down the pan in Poznan we’ll have another Irish football team to support?
Precisely.
