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In the summer of 2012, the RoboPatriots, led by then-PhD student Keith Sullivan, MS Computer Science ’05, PhD ’15, traveled to Mexico City, Mexico, as one of two U.S. teams (the other was from Virginia Tech) to compete in the weeklong 2012 RoboCup. The RoboPatriots competed in the kid-size humanoid league with robots measuring 12 to 24 inches tall. 

The robots played—or tried to play—soccer. For the competition, the robots had to be autonomous to compete. They would get a signal from the referee to “kick off,” and the game began. “It’s like watching five-year-olds play soccer,” said Sullivan of his robotic team. “All the adults are yelling, ‘Run! Kick!’ and the robots do whatever they want, just like five-year-olds.” 

All the robots on the team were named for characters in the 1980s movie Short Circuit. “When we put the first one together, we realized he looked like Johnny 5 [the movie robot] with feet,” Sullivan said. In the photo above, the robot Newton is demonstrating his soccer skills at Engineers Day 2012.