Carnegie Mellon University Humanoids to Provide Commentary for RoboCup; Pair of Bipedal Robots Will Celebrate Goals, Explain Fouls.

(From AScribe)

PITTSBURGH -- Carnegie Mellon University is sending two small bipedal robots to the RoboCup 2006 World Championship June 14-18 in Bremen, Germany, to provide color commentary for robot soccer matches -- a first for humanoid robots.

The walking robots are perfectly capable of kicking a ball, but in this new application they will instead be moving their heads and bodies to track the soccer ball with their electronic eyes. During the championships, they will provide commentary for matches between teams of four-legged robots that were developed by Sony Corporation.

The silver, 2 1/2-foot-tall robots, named Ami and Sango, will receive …