Monday

Monday has been the first competition day here in Singapore. Our table, where we are based, is quite central in the main hall so we can hear the noises from most of the different events going on. To one side we have the rescue robot demonstration area, which is where the real prototype robots are put through their paces through several maze-like areas, looking for dummies. (This year they even have a car there, complete with baby dolls inside waiting to be rescued!). On another side are the @Home robots; these are generally a wheeled platform, with a 'friendly' face and a robot arm, designed to interact with humans in a home setting. Finally, in the other half of the hall there are the football-playing robots; as predicted in my blog from two years ago (robocup2008-oxford.blogspot.com) the number of humanoid robots competing has increased (at the expense of the wheeled robots), and although far from perfect they are continuing to improve.