Germany wins robot World Cup on penalties

Germany’s soccer playing robots are just as dangerous in penalty shootouts as their human counterparts. A team from the University of Bremen beat a team from the University of Texas in a penalty shootout to win Robocup 2016.

The final was a tense affair that finished scoreless after two ten-minute halves. It was then up to select robots to stay cool under pressure. It was the Germans who kept their nerve, slotting three penalties, while the team from the US missed all theirs.

The tournament took place in Leipzig and is the latest in the series of events that have been running for 20 years.

While AI has been coming on leaps and bounds off the pitch, going so far as to most recently defeat human players in Go, it could be some time before bots are ready to take on a real football team. But that seems to be the ultimate goal, which could make a future Euros or World Cup very interesting indeed.