Could a robot win the World Cup? UT experts explore future of automatons

Eric Henrikson
·2 min read

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Scientists want a robot team to win the World Cup by 2050. Its an ambitious goal set by the RoboCup Federation, a collective of engineers aiming to advance robotics. Friday, April 19 experts at the University of Texas plan to highlight this and other advancements in the field as part of the Hot Science Cool Talks lecture series.

“Humans vs AI: Robot Soccer and Grand Turismo” is presented by Dr. Peter Stone, a Professor of Computer Science at UT Austin. Dr. Stone is the former president of the RoboCup Federation and will speak about how AI is creating a giant leap for the field.

“We use a lot of generative AI inside our robots,” said Justin Hart with the Department of Computer Science at UT Austin. Hart works with Dr. Stone in the department and with RoboCup at Home, a spin off of the RoboCup Federation.

“The robots perform domestic chores like cooking and cleaning, putting away groceries,” Hart said. He expects these general purpose robots to be more common place in the next ten years.

How ChatGPT is propelling robotics

According to Hart, generative AI like ChatGPT is helping robots with advanced tasks. Think getting a sponge, using it to wipe up a spill and then ringing it out.

These same top level tasks are also found on a soccer field. Hart said that in RoboCup “[The robots are] humanoid, and they walk around, and they kick the ball into the goal, right. And it’s scored like soccer.”

By using something like soccer to drive innovation, scientists and engineers can score some goals. “These represent the sort of like, long view of future robots that we would like to see.”

Generative AI is also helping robots develop social cues. At Purdue University, Sooyeon Jeong is using the tool to teach robots to read human faces and determine intention.

“If the robots or AI systems become more integrated into our lives, it’s important for the system’s to like learn how to interact with people in a very humanistic and natural way,” Jeong told the Associated Press.

These sorts of advancements are necessary is we ever want to see these general purpose robots in our home. “When you think about like Rosie from the Jetsons, that would be a general purpose robot,” Hart said.

The Hot Science Cool Talks presentation will take place Friday, April 18 at 7:00pm at Burdine Hall at the University of Texas. Tickets are free. You can register here.

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