Robot-Goalkeeper Technology: Germany's Latest...
There could be tough times ahead for Luca Toni. The Bayern Munich striker, just recently crowned Bundesliga champion and currently leading the scoring charts with 21 goals, may soon be confronted with an unsurpassable obstacle... of the robotic kind. Its name is Goalias (or GoalIAS if you prefer), and it's the first robot-goalkepeer capable of defending a regular-sized soccer goal.
IAS stands for Institut für Automatisierungs und Softwaretechnik ("Automation and Software technology Institute", or something along those lines) and is the University of Stuttgart department responsible for the creation of the mechanical goalkeeper. If you're thinking about a cyborg with a humanoid shape though, you're way off. The robot in question is simply a cardboard on wheels, shaped in the form of a goalkeeper and moving alongside a track placed on the goal line. The real engineering marvel of GOalIAS comes from its three videocameras and computer processor, calculating with lightning-fast velocity (under 400 ms in fact) the best position to make a save every time a shot is taken. (article continues)
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