Sporty robots prepare to do battle

Friday 17th August 2012

Just as the Olympics have come to an end a rather unusual team of athletes are preparing to battle it out for a place on the podium.

More than 200 robots are heading to Bristol for the first FIRA RoboWorld Cup to be held in the UK.

Twenty-seven teams will be taking part in football, basketball and weightlifting events in the At-Bristol science centre from August 20 to 25.

Advanced robots and their creators will travel from Mexico, Canada, India, and China for the competition. The UK also has two teams competing from the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) and the University of Plymouth.

Humanoid robots, which are up to 130cm in height and weigh up to 30kg, will take part in HuroCup events including football, basketball, wall climbing, weightlifting and marathon running.

Other categories include MiroSot, a five or 11-a-side football game for wheeled robots.

Bristol won the chance to host the event in the UK thanks to the work of the BRL, a joint research project between the University of Bristol and UWE Bristol. Guido Herrmann, from the University of Bristol, who led the BRL bid, said: "We are looking forward to welcoming teams from around the world to Bristol. The competition promises to be both exciting and insightful, pushing the boundaries of robotics to the limit.

"This will be a fantastic opportunity for the public to see just what autonomous robots are capable of. Although very different to the Olympics, it's another opportunity to show the world just what Great Britain is capable of, both as event hosts and being pioneers of engineering."

Alongside the sporting event the 2012 Joint FIRA-TAROS Congress, bringing together the world's leading experts in robotics, will be held at BRL on the Frenchay Campus of UWE Bristol on August 23.

For more information visit http://www.at-bristol.org.uk/1366.html.

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