Chinese national team may not be playing in the World Cup tournament in South Africa, but China's robot soccer team emerged victorious at the International Humanoid Robot Olympic Games held this year in the northern Chinese city of Harbin. Chinese, South Korean and American teams pitted their humanoid robots against each others on the soccer pitch as people watched the two mechanical players on each team dribble, kick and pass the ball around, while a third robot defended the goal. Computer science student at Harbin Institute of Technology, Guo Weichao, won the match after his robot scored the most number of goals in a penalty shoot-out. Operators fine-tuned their robot players before each match. The machines require a sophisticated degree of movement to recognize the ball, follow its movement and position themselves for a kick before the opponent arrives.
