Robot footballers could be the next Ronaldo!

摘要

Autonomous robots capable of finding their own way around and performing various tasks - including some nifty soccer skills moves - were the theme of this year's Hanover Fair. Apart from the wannabe Ronaldos, they ranged from industrial robot fork lift trucks for car factories to robotic jelly fish, programmed to keep clear of each other in water. Applications, or intended applications, were mostly in manufacturing. But there were also robots to inform the public, look for intruders, survey rough terrain, clean windows - and, of course, play football. Some worked better than others, but there were none that posed any kind of threat to humans working in the same environment. Festo, following on from its robotic swimming and flying manta rays last year, had swimming and flying jellyfish this year, produced once again by Evologics in Berlin. The philosophy in both cases was to have a vessel that was slightly heavier than the medium in which it floated, so that it either sank slowly or wafted its tentacles up and down, in order to rise. These used the same fish fin-inspired 'Fin Ray' effect actuators as were used for the Manta rays, which, states designer Leif Kniese, have since found commercial application in mop buckets -which use the mechanical action to squeeze more water out of the mop heads.