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Move over, Messi! Robot footballers thrill crowds in South Korea
- RoboCup 2026, known as the 'World Cup of Robotics,' began on July 2 at Incheon's Songdo Convensia, gathering 2,879 players from 364 teams across 45 countries to compete in soccer and industrial automation tasks.
- Founded in Japan in 1997, the competition pursues a long-term goal of building fully autonomous robot teams capable of defeating FIFA World Cup champions by 2050 through soccer, rescue, and industrial robotics.
- While robots play autonomously, human team members relay referee commands like 'stop' and 'resume' via software, Lea Wedmann of the Hamburg Bit-Bots team from Germany told AFP. On Friday, a referee shouted 'stop!' as a shot flew out of bounds, prompting every robot to freeze instantly.
- Inha University professor Shim In-wook believes robot football could become a sport in its own right, noting that unlike the single Lionel Messi in human football, thousands of robot players can be mass-produced.
- Morgan Stanley Research estimates the global humanoid robotics market could reach $5 trillion by 2050, while Thomas Rofer, spokesperson for Germany's B-Human team at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, said 'Recently there has been a big step forward in humanoid robot development.
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"Robot Soccer, I'll Win." Children are playing robot soccer using remote controls at the 2026 Dream Up Youth Career and Job Experience Fair held at Peace Park in Nam-gu, Busan on the 3rd. Cooling pads are attached to their foreheads to cool down.
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources21
Leaning Left0Leaning Right6Center4Last UpdatedBias Distribution60% Right
Bias Distribution
- 60% of the sources lean Right
60% Right
C 40%
R 60%
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