Miniature humanoid robots are getting more impressive by the day: this video shows the Darmstadt Dribblers team in action in the recent 2008 Robocup. And if you notice, they're really playing like proper autonomous soccer teams. It's the first year that three on three playing action has happened, and thus required some nifty role negotiation and info exchange over wi-fi. That's in addition to avoiding obstacles, finding the ball visually and trying to score goals. Ok, so that opposing team needs a better goalie, but at least watching this robotic version of the beautiful game means you get to see less diving and hissy fits at the referee. Impressive stuff, no? [YouTube.—Thanks Stefan]

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The RoboCup soccer tourney gets all the publicity, but the RoboCup Rescue competition kicking off this week in Germany is thrilling in a more macabre way: Each year the rubble-strewn maze gets more and more complicated, as robots use AI and all their mechanical faculties to locate (though not necessarily recover) dolls that scream, wriggle and emit carbon dioxide and heat.

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Although these bots have a long way to go before they're able to beat a human team of soccer players, the RoboCup organizers say their goal is to have a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can beat the world champion soccer team by 2050, so they have plenty of time to practice. Meanwhile, the annual world championship, RoboCup 2007, is underway in Atlanta, and here's some action from the preliminary game between the Darmstadt Dribblers and CIT/H.

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