These Soccer Players Don’t Stand A Chance Against Computer Goalie

No matter how much you train and how many years of experience you have under your belt, there’s no such thing as a perfect record. Sometimes, you’re just having a bad day. Other times, the laws of gravity are against you. In soccer, you can be the best goal-getter and still miss your shot… especially when a robot plays goalkeeper #machinemagic

These soccer players found out just how frustrating it is to play against a robot. Several did their best to trick the Robokeeper, but nothing worked. Check out how the robotic goalkeeper keeps it together:

Robokeeper is capable of these maneuvers thanks to a couple of cameras that take up to 90 pictures per second. They are situated above the goal and track the object continuously, establishing the trajectory. For optimum results, the ball has to don a different color than the one the floor.

To calculate the point of impact, an image processing software comes in motion and sends the information to the motor control, activating the robotic goalie. “All of this happens within fractions of a second; after all a well-kicked ball can attain a speed of well over 100 km/h. The penalty mark for the RoboKeeper is about 9 meters from the goal, leaving only 0.3 seconds to bring the goalie, which is attached to a high performance gear mechanism, into the right position.”, explains the company.

There are seven levels of difficulty, so there’s still a chance to score. But as soccer player Lionel Messi found out, even then it’s pretty hard:

RoboKeeper vs. Messi from 4attention GmbH & Co. KG on Vimeo.