A robotics competition of two halves

Winner of the Iran Open 2016 and world vice-champions at RoboCup 2014 in Brazil, the team (pictured below) is made up of humanoid miniature sized robot footballers with names derived from Arthurian legend – Gareth, Tor, Bors, Oberon, Ywain and Nimue. Founded in 2002 by Dr Daniel Polani, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Hertfordshire, these remarkable robots are capable of diverse play, tackling, shooting, passing and picking themselves up after falls.

The robots are strictly not remotely controlled and have to make all decisions during the game on their own. They are completely autonomous, fully controlled by an on-board computer and give 110% both on and off the pitch.

As well as contributing to an increasingly popular global scientific sport, the Hertfordshire scientists behind Bold Hearts are constantly pushing the boundaries of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence research, by developing robots that can effectively "think and decide for themselves" - unlike some of their human compatriots.

The team members look pensive ahead of their opening match

Dr Polani and his team are constantly making improvements to the robots and this year, they will benefit from better balancing and enhanced recognition of footballs and goalposts. In the future they are looking at using 3D print technology to manufacture even more superior robots.

“Machines have already beaten humans at the challenge of games such as chess and recently, Go. Since humans no longer pose a challenge for computers at cerebral games, the final frontier in games may turn out to be, after all, football! In RoboCup, we want to boldly go where no robot has gone before. Intelligence is so much more than brain power – it’s an enormous challenge to make the ‘minds and bodies’ of the robots work together in a smooth fashion. The future is also increasingly going to see us naturally embracing robots into our social interactions,” said Dr Polani - presumably over the moon at the project's success.

The official long-term goal of RoboCup, established in 1997, is to create a team of humanoid robot soccer players which, by the year 2050, will play against the human world champions and win. The wider aim of this is to promote robotics and AI research, by offering a publicly appealing, but formidable challenge. As they say, there are no easy games at this level

RoboCup is growing in popularity worldwide and is made up of various different leagues according to the size of the robots – these can range from small to human sized machines. There are also different leagues of the competition which cover other challenges and stages, including RoboCup Junior, RoboCup Rescue or the Robocup Logistics League.

It's a funny old game.