Mechanical exercise pays off for Irish robots

PENALTY shoot-out secures Irish soccer victory! No, it’s not an archive headline after Packie Bonner’s famous save against Romania in Genoa, but rather the story of an Irish team whose robots did the business to become the world’s best in China last week.

Giovanni Trapattoni might do well to take a few tips from the lads at National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM), whose knee-high Numanoids side beat steely opposition from 15 other countries at the RoboCup World Championship in Suzhou near Shanghai.

The two-a-side games involve two-legged robots — no jokes about the Irish defence, please — facing off on an indoor pitch about six metres long. There are no remote controls or joysticks, however, as the players are completely autonomous.