A robot soccer player just gave goalkeepers another reason to feel nervous.Booster Robotics titled its YouTube video "Try Stopping This Robot," and after watching its T1 humanoid hammer soccer balls toward a goal, you can see why.Most of the kicks hit the curtain behind the net.
But several shots appear to hit with enough force to leave visible impact marks and dents in the wall.That part is what everyone is talking about.At first, it just looks like a viral robot soccer video.
Then the wall damage makes the whole thing feel a lot more serious.This video also raises an important question: What happens if someone were to end up in the path of a soccer ball kicked by one of these robots?AUTONOMOUS HUMANOID ROBOT SOCCER DEBUTS IN CHINABooster Robotics’ T1 humanoid robot lines up a soccer kick inside the company’s lab, where its shots hit with enough force to dent the wall.
(Booster Robotics)Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportThe Booster T1 is a humanoid robot from Beijing-based Booster Robotics.According to Booster, the T1 stands about 3 feet, 10 inches tall and weighs about 66 pounds.
Booster says the T1 has 23 to 41 degrees of freedom, depending on the configuration.In everyday terms, that means it has enough moving joints to walk, turn, balance and perform athletic movements.The company also says the T1 can walk for about two hours and stand for about four hours on a charge.
It supports open-source tools, software frameworks and API interfaces.That makes it easier for teams to train the robot for new tasks.
The company also says more than 50 robotics teams and research institutes already use the platform.There is also a serious reason companies test robots this way.Soccer forces a humanoid robot to deal with movement, balance and split-second changes.
The ball does not stay still.The robot has to adjust its body, shift its weight and decide what to do next.
That makes soccer a useful test for machines that may one day work around people.Those lessons can...