Yup, as expected, the boys loved the day at the RoboCup 2010 at Suntec yesterday! I'm so glad for my brother in church, Conrad, for inviting us to go for this field trip. Thanks Conrad! He sells these electronic parts that create robots, so do go and check out his site Inex Robotics! You can add him (Inex Conrad) on facebook too.
There were several categories for robot soccer ranging from this the junior section to the larger zippy "vacuum cleaner" ones....(These are pre-programmed robots not remote controlled.)
I call them vacuum cleaners because, being ego-centric, that's the name I can relate with. haha
I can only relate to robots on my human level. SO I had fun imagining the robots when they were spinning their video censors around to detect the ball as them shaking their heads in bewilderment. Where's the ball? Where's the ball? Where IS that ball?
And then, on the 4th floor at the convention centre, were the "humanoid" robots.
These cute little ones were hilarious!!! They kept falling over trying to step to reach the ball. (I hope I didn't offend the team members by laughing so loud. :p But I wasn't laughing at how poorly they were playing soccer but how funny they were falling over and getting up and they weren't anywhere near the ball.)
And the strategies the creators employed to get the robots to stand up again was so cute too! Some would sorta do a split, and with legs straight, draw their feet back together in a quick motion. Others' arms would do a backward contortion and sort of back flip back on their feet in upright position.
What really impressed me was God's amazing design and creation that we can walk and balance and stand up so effortlessly. We can make micro, split second decisions to correct ourselves when we lift off one leg to plant it infront of the other leg. When we see a computer that needs to be programmed to do that, and with a very limited set of instructions, it's just amazing to think what our brain does so effortlessly. The work of an amazing creator God who designed us (and all creatures and life) with infinite wisdom.
This guy is heavy! (From team NUS! My university! Yae!)
It took two people using a pole stretcher to move this robot around and it was heavy! My engineering trained hubby told me later that it's heavy because every moving part needs a motor and it all adds up to a very heavy machine. haha. He can appreciate the robots for a totally different perspective, the marriage of Engineering and Artificial Intelligence. But again, we were in awe, thinking of God's amazing design that our muscles are not that heavy and controlled from a central information sending organ, the brain.
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