Football robots to compete in RoboCup

Event aims to promote interest in artificial intelligence, robotics and related sciences

A robot world cup will begin in France on Tuesday, showcasing the latest advances in engineering and artificial intelligence.

The city of Bordeaux is the host of this year's RoboCup, which will welcome about 2,500 participants from 45 countries, as well as 2,000 robots.

With the women’s football World Cup kicking off later this month in Australia and New Zealand, this is the robots’ chance to find out who is at the top of their game.

The RoboCup, hosted by the University of Bordeaux, has been pushed back twice due to Covid restrictions but organisers say they have used the time to improve the event.

“We've been waiting too long. Since September 2015, I have been trying to bring RoboCup to Bordeaux,” organising committee member Jean-Francois Laplume said.

“The RoboCup event in itself is great, but what interests me is to educate people, so that people understand the scientific, technical or industrial issues of AI.”

The event aims to promote interest in AI, robotics and related sciences.

Each robot competes in five leagues, testing its abilities in areas including motor skills and autonomy.

Each of the 300 teams participating in this year's event has between four and 10 people, made up of researchers, professors and students.

The competition shows off the latest advances in image analysis, motor function, human and robot interaction, and AI decision making.

There will also be seminars to address ethical, societal and environmental questions raised by the growing presence of robotics in day-to-day life.

Berlin staged the event in 2016. Getty

RoboCup, first proposed in 1996 to stimulate research, was developed with the complex goal of having robots able to compete - and win - against the human victors of the 2050 football World Cup.

Previous events have been staged in Germany, Japan, Canada, Australia and Thailand.

The 26th event will take place from July 4 to 10 at Bordeaux's Parc des Expositions.