Soccer-playing robot from Osaka

Bipedal robots are coming thick and fast this year. Here's another, the Visi'ON (how does one pronounce that?) from industry/academia collaboration Team Osaka. The 38-inch tall, 2.4 kg robot has an omnidirectional sensor that enables it to look in any direction without turning its head, and carries a high-performance CPU and software that keep it apprised of where it is in relation to the ball and its opponents.

The Visi'ON (how do you pronounce that?) was developed for the forthcoming RoboCup Japan Open 2004 Osaka, a soccer tournament for robots.

Team Osaka is made up of Hiroshi Ishiguro's robotics lab at the University of Osaka, processing tech firm Systec Akazawa, and robot venture Vstone (check out the movies of their Robovie-M, another soccer-playing robot--its' shooting technique is particularly cool in a Shaolin Soccer kinda way.)

[Via ITmedia (Japanese)]