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Alas, this is it for Sony's Aibo. Aibo seems to have made its last appearance at this year's RoboCup. Late last year, the RoboCup Federation called for tenders for a new robot platform to replace Sony's Aibo. Well, it turns out that Aldebaran Robotics has won the tender and RoboCup will now use it's Nao robot for the Standard Platform League (formerly called the Four Legged League). In this RoboCup 2007 video from waziwazi, Bruno Maisonnier - founder of Aldebaran Robotics - introduces Nao to the audience. See two more videos of Nao here. Interestingly enough, Aldebaran Robotics was not one of the four tenders invited to demo their robots at RoboCup 2007. They were probably a last minute entry.

The following is our exclusive interview with the winner of the kid size league of RoboCup 2007

RoboCup Atlanta, Jul 06 2007

Waziwazi- What improvements have you made on your robot since last years competition? ... continued

Team NimbRo of the University of Freiburg today beat last year's champions Team Osaka in the kid-size humanoid soccer competition at RoboCup 2007! NimbRo's robots Jurgen and Lothar beat Team Osaka's VisiON 4G robots 8-6. See our video page for more of the highlights. ... continued

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The Iranian team brought some outstanding performance in RoboCup 2006 in Bremen. Although their KERMAN Robot would have been a strong contender at RoboCup 2007, Dr. Jafari arrived in Atlanta with an incomplete team. This was because of immigration problems.

In our interview with Professor Jafari, waziwazi has learned of the difficulties of robotics development in Iran.

RoboCup Atlanta, Jul 06 2007

Waziwazi- What is the significance of the RoboCup to you? ... continued

We are approaching the end of week-long RoboCup competitions now. It is becoming more clear who the winner of each contest group shall be. We know at the moment that Nimbro and PAL Technology will be battling for the first place of the Teen League on early Sunday, while either Team Osaka or RoboErectus will take the third place in the same league. In the meanwhile, Team Rope and Team Osaka have both entered semi-finals in the Kid League.
We will update you with more RoboCup news and video coverages shortly. Please stay tuned.

More photo footage brought to you by waziwazi.com

Tomotaka Takahashi has become famous for his Kyoto University spinoff Robo-Garage. He has developed some pretty outstanding robots which are known for their fluid animated motion and good looks. One of his most talked-about creation is FT pictured above. The following is an exclusive interview with Tomotaka Takahashi conducted by waziwazi's correspondent in Atlanta, Tim Payne.

RoboCup Atlanta, Jul 06 2007

Waziwazi- How long have you been in the robotics industry and what sparked your interests in this field?

Tomotaka- About seven years. I first graduated with a degree in sociology. Then I decide to take robotics courses, I wanted to learn about robotics, it was about 1999. Actually, I was just a little kid about six years old or seven years old and I read Astro Boy comics. I loved how the Scientist creates a robot and after reading that I wanted to be a robot scientist. After that I forgot about it, but after my first graduation, I don’t know why, but I wanted to be a robot scientist again.

Waziwazi- What do you ... continued

waziwazi's coverage of RoboCup continues. We have new stuff from day 4's RoboCup Soccer action in the video page.

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waziwazi at RoboCup 2007 Atlanta

waziwazi at RoboCup 2007 Atlanta