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Robotics Entertainment Games Science

German Robot Dogs Dominate 2005 RoboCup U.S. Open 229

Posted by timothy from the and-how-often-do-you-get-to-say-that? dept.
fishdan writes "As reported over on Sportsdot, the 2005 RoboCup US Open wrapped up today in Atlanta, Georgia. The American entry from the University of Texas fell 2-0 in robot soccer to the powerhouse German squad, the MicroSoft HellHounds. After the match, the German robot dogs were programmed to flex their metal biceps. With the time to devote to development and the financial backing of a company like Microsoft, the German entries are much more polished then their American counterparts at the moment. Last month at the RoboCup German Open, the Germans dominated nearly every category. (Slashdot has covered Robocup in previous years, too.)"
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German Robot Dogs Dominate 2005 RoboCup U.S. Open More

German Robot Dogs Dominate 2005 RoboCup U.S. Open

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  • Oh Yeah? (Score:4, Funny)

    by smug_lisp_weenie ( 824771 ) * <cbarski.4503440@bloglines.com> on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:06AM (#12497858) Homepage
    Well, we still woop their butt in robot basketball.

    Oh- Plus, our team just lost because they were intimidated by the German robotic soccer hooligans.

    • Re:Oh Yeah? (Score:3, Funny)

      by cHALiTO ( 101461 )
      You mean like you won in human basketball at the olympics? oh, wait.. nevermind. ;)
    • The UK will dominate you all as soon as they get a break from filming
      EXTERMINATE! [bbc.co.uk]


    • News just in.

      US invents new robot sport "robotilotocis" that no-one else in the world plays. 5 teams entered from all over the US (Two from California, Two from New York, and one paid for by the tax payers in Washington)... winner declared World Champion.

  • Before anything else is judged, know that the Germans put a lot more time and effort into programming the AIBO dogs.

    • waaaa.. "we only lost cause we didn't practice" isn't a good enough excuse. What is it that differentiates teams with essentially the same hardware? TIME AND EFFORT. Kudos to the German team.
      hmmm.... slow motion soccer. . .
      • Not at all a waaa. The Germen won because of the time and effort they were willing to put in. And there robot programming skill

        But having a sponser certainly helps. Where the Germans had 20? people working on it, some full time. The Americans, according to the article, were working on it between classes.

        Congrats to the Germans, untill the Americans take it more seriously they will be lucky to win.

    • Re:Germans vs Americans (Score:4, Insightful)

      by maxwell demon ( 590494 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:56AM (#12498253) Journal
      Teacher: Sorry, you failed that test.
      Pupil: But, I haven't put much effort into learning, and for that, I think it was quite good!

      Now, what's the most likely reaction of the teacher?
      A: "Oh, sorry, I didn't know that. Well, for not learning much, that work was definitely not bad! I'll correct your grade immediatly!"
      B: "So you didn't put much effort in it? Ok, well, then you just got what you deserve."
      C: "Well, I'm not sure what I should do now. Maybe I'll make it an AskSlashdot question ..."

    • Re:Germans vs Americans (Score:5, Informative)

      by Omega697 ( 586982 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @10:01AM (#12498313)
      Also, let it be known that it wasn't us (UT Austin Villa) that played the Germans, but the team from CMU (CMDash).

      Also, let it be known that in the world competition, the German teams all combine to form one team of about 80 people from many different universities around Germany. They have a very structured codebase (I believe the use a lot of XML to define behaviors and motions) that they all work on. Don't crown the German Team too quickly though, there are some mighty good teams from Australia too, one of which gave the German Team a serious run for their money in last year's RoboCup finals.
      • So what you're saying is that we shouldn't admire them too much since they only won because they pooled their resources efficiently and had good programming practices? Sheesh, those cheating bastards!
    • The Americans would have easily won if they'd programmed their robots to say, "Wenn ist das Nunstruck git und Slotermeyer? Ja!...
      Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!"

  • I wonder... (Score:4, Funny)

    by bmalek ( 855094 ) <brian.malek@gmail.com> on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:07AM (#12497865)
    ... if asking for a beer and a dog at the event would be frowned upon?

    What happens to the dogs that get the blue screen of death?
    • Hey, I had a beer at the last RoboCup World Cup, and no one seemed to mind! Also, while Microsoft does sponsor the Hellhounds, the Aibos run a proprietary Sony OS called Aperios, which in turn runs a somewhat more open system called "Open-R" that teams use to develop the robots. So while crashing robots is not an entirely uncommon event (there's even a 30 second penalty for it), we unfortunately can't really blame Microsoft for it.

  • Natural allies (Score:5, Funny)

    by elrous0 ( 869638 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:07AM (#12497866)
    Microsoft teaming up with the Germans? Oh yeah, something good is bound to come out of that.

    -Eric

  • Not Austin Villa (Score:5, Informative)

    by hauntedspaceship ( 548729 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:07AM (#12497867) Homepage
    It was CMDash from Carnegie Melon that played Dortmund in the US-German match. UT Austin Villa placed 3rd behind UPenn and CMU.
    • Austin Villa is the name of the actual soccer team I play(ed) on while going to UT. One of our players is doing postgraduate robotics at UT. It's nice to know we're the team's namesake.

  • Pro Wrestling (Score:2, Funny)

    by kahei ( 466208 )

    Now I get it -- it's like Pro Wrestling! They're building the evil evil HellHounds up to be the baddies -- muscle-flexing (probably nazi, gay, or both) foreigners with shady corporate backing. Now the first American team, the down-home Texans, takes a fall to build up sympathy. THAT's when they wheel out the REAL HEROES, which'll be some big 'Team America' (only not puppets) which will whup the teutonic cheats to the sound of wild cheering and 'yankee doodle'.

    I'm getting my crudely-lettered 'KILL!' sign

  • Same with normal soccer (Score:3, Funny)

    by moz25 ( 262020 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:11AM (#12497889) Homepage
    The germans dominate at normal soccer (with humans) too. It's annoying.

  • Flex my shiny metal... (Score:3, Funny)

    by autophile ( 640621 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:21AM (#12497975)
    After the match, the German robot dogs were programmed to flex their metal biceps.

    (sigh) After the post, the Nerd slashdot dogs were programmed to flex their keyboard fingers and kill the servers.

    --Rob

  • I need a pet that my kids will like that will actually listen to me and do what I say instead of giving me the paw.

  • Why Germans? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by inherent monkey love ( 875830 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:23AM (#12497988) Journal
    Other than to give the foil-hat types among us a dose of pyrric irony, why would Microsoft team up with a German team? I would think that the past few months have demonstrated that Europeans dislike Microsfot even more than the US. So why?
    • And if I recall some Scientology debacle with a defragmentation program some years ago, the Germans are (well, were) even more against Microsoft that the rest of the EU. But I guess money is the tool that'll break down all barriers. Everybody has a price...
    • It's probably a sain marketing move. Germany is strongly into open source, lunix etc...
      They're doing marketing were they need it most.
    • First thing that pops in my Mind...
      World Domination

      Or another cliche that is not necessarily true: German Engineering is the best in the world.
  • You know, Microsoft hasn't been spelled with a capital S since early 1987. Maybe in 2007, the geeks who hold a grudge could let this one go, and spell the trademark correctly. Heck, hardly anybody says "Un*x" anymore...
  • The HellHound-site is not responding, I wonder if some one is swearing in german (Zum Teufel!) somewhere...

  • In the words of Gary Lineker (Score:5, Funny)

    by ardmhacha ( 192482 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:29AM (#12498042)
    "Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win." -- Gary Lineker (English soccer/football player)

  • Develop a robot to *watch* soccer (Score:5, Funny)

    by ewg ( 158266 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:33AM (#12498069)

    We need to develop a robot to watch soccer, an activity Americans generally consider too tedious for humans.

    • Yes, because you may miss a goal while chewing your corn or opening your beer. American "Football" OTOH is nicely paced to allow for proper nutrition pauses.
    • In my country soccer is the most popular sport by a large margin. Nevertheless I laughed my ass off watching the Simpsons parody of soccer, ending in a huge soccer riot after 5 minutes :)

    • Re:Develop a robot to *watch* soccer (Score:5, Funny)

      by Quixote ( 154172 ) * on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @09:58AM (#12498282) Homepage Journal
      ... as compared to a fast, action-packed game like baseball.
    • "soccer, an activity Americans generally consider too tedious for humans."

      Ah yes.

      Unlike baseball.

      Or American Football.

    • I think a big part of why Americans don't care for soccer is because they've never played it. Not in a real organized sense where you learn the rules and the strategy and the little things about the game. You'll never really appreciate a game you've never played. That's why Americans don't like soccer and Europeans don't like Baseball, because neither really gets the strategy.
      • I think a big part of why Americans don't care for soccer is because they've never played it.

        I think you're dead-on. I grew up playing it in DC, and I can't get enough of it. I even subscribe to GolTV so that I can watch La Liga (and I spent a year in Spain last year). Its the same reason that I don't like basketball -- I've never played, so I've never enjoyed the intricacies of the game.
      • Bzzzt! Try again.

        In America, we have a very common term "soccer moms" for moms who drive their kids to various practices/lessons all day.

        If soccer was not so popular, you would hear more about "football moms" or "baseball moms".

        Soccer is VERY popular among kids, they just grow out of it by the time they go to high school since there is no money in it (at least in US).
    • We need to develop a robot to watch soccer, an activity Americans generally consider too tedious for humans.

      Heh. This from the country[1] that foisted baseball upon a portion of the world...arguably the most tedious of games (cricket would win, except they're civilized enough to stop for tea now and then).

      What we need is a robot for watching sports in general ... always far too tedious for human beings to watch. Of course, that could be generalized to television as a whole, with the added caveat "...al
    • You're on the wrong site. Fark is thataway...
    • Great! Being nerds we will never *play* soccer - we got robots to do that. Then we get so lazy, we won't even watch them play - we get robots to do *that*. (Of course, the more AI minded nerds among us will enjoy studying the robots watching the robots playing ...)
  • is a robo version of David Hasslehoff. Or would it be David Hassleruff? Either way, thats why they won and not because of superior funding.
  • The Germans dominated nearly every category in the GERMAN Robocup...

    • What's your point? (Score:2, Informative)

      by LordStraun ( 794808 )
      They also played in the US Open.

      The German Robocup included teams from:
      • Portugal
      • Iran
      • The Netherlands
      • Austria
      • France
      • Italy
      • Russia
      • Denmark
      • United Arab Emirates
      And of course, Germany.

  • Well (Score:1, Funny)

    by Timberwolf0122 ( 872207 )
    I for one welcome our new robotic kanine over lords

    DOG SPRUNG TECHNIK!
  • Do the robots have rocket launchers and lasers? Or even titanium buzzsaw blades at the end of their arms?

    No?

    You mean it's *just* soccer?

    Then why do I care?

  • Salute? (Score:1, Troll)

    by dcw3 ( 649211 )
    After the match, the German robot dogs were programmed to flex their metal biceps.

    As long as it wasn't along with a "Zig Heil" bark, and snap of the hind paws, I'm cool with that.

  • German?!? (Score:4, Funny)

    by HBergeron ( 71031 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @10:40AM (#12498677)
    Why am I beset by the image of huge metal german shepards chasing me through the woods and then sitting up and flexing over my lifeless corpse.

    German... Robot... Dogs... Chilling.
    • That's exactly the way I pictured it when I read the story. I think the Germans still have a PR problem sixty five years after their last little escapade. I suggest they change their name to something like Fluffenhappi, Smilenlafen, or Nottinvaden.

  • Does anyone have video of the match? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by neo ( 4625 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @10:41AM (#12498695)
    I'd really like to watch the match, did anyone save the video?

  • To improve America's showing next year... (Score:3, Funny)

    by kent_eh ( 543303 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @10:47AM (#12498765)
    -we need to improve the bottom line by offshoring more engineering/tech jobs.
    -move more scholarships to sports programs.
    -increase school class size to make schools more efficient.
    -increase corperate and religious involvement in school curricuum.



    oh, wait...

  • Sombody asked for some videos of Robosoccer matches, unfortunatly i could not find any of the 2005 World Cup but some nice aolder ones:

    http://www-ds.e-technik.uni-dortmund.de/~robotics/ content/videos.html [uni-dortmund.de]

    Have fun ...

  • Facts ftw (Score:2, Informative)

    by Morticae ( 801527 )
    I am a CS major at UT Austin and have been involved in robotics here. It was mentioned briefly, but I'd like to paste the text from the UT site which corrects this article. Sources. Check them.

    "11 May 2005
    The team is just getting back from the 2005 US Open where we placed third. While we lost our semifinal match 1-0 to Penn, we played an exhibition match against the eventual first place team, CMU, and won 2-1. In official play, we outscored our opponents 24-1. With a little bit of luck we could have wou
    • According to ESPN:

      http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/news/story?id=20 5 7311 [go.com]

      and (the exact same story) on the Robocup official site: http://www.robocup-us.org/press.html [robocup-us.org]

      Texas lost *a* game Germany 2-0. I don't see anywhere that says that it was the championship game. As an insider, are you saynig Texas did not play Dortmund at all?

      ...Sources. Check Them...

      Articles...Read Them.

      • So you trust the AP more than someone from the mentioned team itself? I am a member of Carnegie Mellon's team CMDash, and I was there at the open. We placed first among the teams from the Americas, which one could find out if one asked any member of any team. Obviously the AP writer didn't bother to do so. I'd bet they didn't even attend the game, as it would be pretty obvious where the American team was from, since every one of us had a shirt that said "Carnegie Mellon".

        Errors aside, several US teams
  • "Die Microsoft Hellhounds"

    Odd that they would threaten their own creations?

    --
    (It's funny laugh) - Du Poo-Poo-Kopf!
  • Doesn't the very notion of Triumphant Robotic German Anything automatically invoke Godwin? I'm not sure that's allowed at the story-posting level.

    That said, all I saw on cable news about this one this morning was stationary 'bots in the background with some Euronerds walking around, and the talking heads repeating the silliness about it just being a few years before the human players won't stand a chance. I'll hold off until my Roomba can win a fight with a puppy protecting its chew toy in the living roo
  • Directive 1: Serve the fastest goals
    Directive 2: Protect the DRM
    Directive 3: Uphold the ball
    Directive 4: Classified, see Bill Gates
  • Historically, Germany has always been on the forefront of technology. During WWII they had the first operational Jet Fighter and invented many technologies that we use today including the modern cruise missle and the modern Rocket Engine.

    In the later years, Germany produced some of the most interesting technology that we currently use almost everyday such as mp3's. It is no wonder that countries like Germany and/or Japan tend to dominate the Robo World Cup. In their culture, its cool to be a 'geek'!
    • In their culture, its cool to be a 'geek'!

      I bet you've never been here...
    • Uh, it is not like it is cool to be a 'geek' here (I'm german.) or something. It is just that Germany is the third most powerful economy in the world with about one third of the population of the US. So it is not really surprising german engineers invented their share of stuff.

      I think the real reason why german teams dominate the Robo World Cup is because soccer is popular as a regular sport here and taken very seriously as a sport, so the Robo Cup teams take their work very serious, too. I don't think ger

      • That's interesting. I suspect that even if it were Robo-[American]Football, it wouldn't be taken seriously here. I think people here just don't care about that sort of thing.

        If there isn't a guy in the endzone doing an obnoxious dance while you pour beer over the guy in front of you, it just doesn't matter.
      • I wonder how much longer that can sustain it self with unemployment numbers in the double digits [dw-world.de].

  • You know what... (Score:4, Funny)

    by springMute ( 873579 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2005 @01:09PM (#12500486)
    The pusher robot would smash them all by pushing them over the stairs.
  • 1. CMU won the American open
    2. Germany was there as an exhibition team
    3. Germany played several of the American teams, including CMU, and beat them, as was expected

    Germany has been strong recently. They put far more resources into their team than any US university.

    Robocup will be in Japan this summer. Then we'll get to see real international competition.

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