Brazil to host World Cup for robots

Rio de Janeiro: Brazil, which organised the just-concluded 2014 FIFA World Cup, will now host a soccer tournament for robots that will bring together thousands of university students from dozens of countries.

The event, which will be held from July 19-25 in the north-eastern city of Joao Pessoa, is divided into five different categories based on the size and characteristics of the robots, organisers said. Although the centrepiece is the soccer competition, RoboCup 2014 also encompasses other leagues covering rescue operations and domestic tasks. The project also includes RoboCupJunior leagues for young students. RoboCup`s organisers say around 3,000 university students from 45 countries and 400 teams will participate in this year`s competition, which will attract approximately 60,000 spectators. The finals of the different categories will take place July 24, while the RoboCup International Symposium, the core meeting for presentation and discussion of scientific contributions to a variety of research areas related to all RoboCup divisions, will be held a day later. One of the world`s leading technology events, RoboCup was founded in 1997 in Japan with the goal of developing by 2050 a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots capable of defeating the World Cup-winning squad in a match governed by FIFA`s official rules.