The Fifa World Cup happens in Germany in 2006 - but that isn't the only world cup. The robotic equivalent, RoboCup 2006 happens in Bremen from 14-18 June. | "RoboCup, the most important robot competition in the world, is coming to Germany. Parallel to the FIFA World Cup for the real flesh and blood players." | | Hans Peter Schneider, Managing Director of Messe Bremen. |
Belvidere School has been collaborating in a multi-national project to build some of the robots that will be challenging for the RoboCup Junior title. The school has a flourishing after-school robot club run by Dr Ashley Green of the Open University, so they have developed the skills and experience necessary to build a world-beating robot, but they are not facing the opposition unaided. The robot chassis was designed by one of the Portuguese partner schools and after construction, it is shipped to Portugal or Germany for the addition of motors, wheels, sensors, solenoids, batteries and electronics. Meanwhile, Belvidere's mission was to accurately cut their chassis out of 5mm thick acrylic sheets using a computer-controlled laser cutter in the school’s Alcoa Centre, under the supervision of assistant headmaster Mark Walton and Dr Green. The robot bodies have been produced in the colours of each partner school’s national or regional flag: black-red-yellow for Germany; blue and white stripes for Bavaria; red and green for Portugal; red, white and blue stripes for the UK. Six lucky members of the robot clubwill also travel to Bremen on 13 June to meet their German and Portuguese team-mates and prepare their robots for five days of intense activity. They will be competing with the best Junior RoboSoccer teams from across the world. During their spare time they will have the chance to watch some of the world’s leading robotics researchers and their robots in action in the senior leagues, and visit the 'Service Robotics' exhibition in the Bremen Convention Centre. As well as being great fun, there is a more serious side to the contest. These robots aren't exactly the stuff of science-fiction - they're not going to take over the world, but the project does go some way towards research into artificial intelligence. The idea is that setting a problem that will be solved by several different teams using different technologies, the best ideas will be developed in a step towards a fully functioning robot. Believe it or not, the ultimate goal of RoboCup is that, by the year 2050, a team of robot soccer players shall play (and win!) a game of football against the (human) world champions. Of course, they may have to find the mechanical equivalent of Maradona's 'hand of God'... | 
