It's not enough that the French national soccer team has even been reprimanded by President Sarkozy for their disgraceful performance at the World Cup; now they have competition from their humanoid robot colleagues. French robots have used German "intelligence" and technology to win the 2010 World Robot Football Championships in Singapore. As the trade magazine konstruktionspraxis reported on its website on June 30, the "B-Human" team from the DFKI (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence) and the University of Bremen won the "RoboCup 2010". The standard platform was the humanoid robot "Nao" from the French company Aldebaran Robotics.



The Bremen team "B-Human" led by team boss Dr. Thomas Röfer equipped the humanoid footballers with superior "artificial intelligence". Unlike their human counterparts from France, the soccer robots impressed with their fast running, precise shots, excellent team coordination and strength in duels. Thanks to the equipment supplied by German plastic plain bearing manufacturer Igus (Cologne), they were very light-footed and agile and therefore won the final of the Standard Platform League with a commanding 6:1.



"The victory of the B-Human team is successful proof of the performance of our AI researchers and development engineers in Germany as a technology location," commented Bernd Weinig, publisher of konstruktionspraxis.



RoboCup is an international initiative to promote research in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics. The aim of RoboCup is to develop a team of autonomous, humanoid robots by 2050 that will be able to beat the reigning human soccer world champion at that time.



"konstruktionspraxis" is the leading specialist medium for developers and designers in mechanical, apparatus and vehicle construction, electrical engineering and other metal and plastics processing industries. It covers all phases of the design process, from digital design and the selection of materials and design components through to the use of components from the fields of connection, fluid and drive technology, automation and electrical engineering. www.konstruktionspraxis.de offers multi-layered, multimedia and interactive specialist and product information as well as news for designers and developers. The parent company Vogel Business Media is one of the leading German providers of specialist information with around 100 trade journals and 60 websites as well as numerous international activities. Its headquarters are in Würzburg.