Maker Faire Rome 2019 - The European Edition Features Robot Footballers

Robot footballers, or soccer players, may sound like the stuff of sci-fi, plucked from over-the-top movies such as "Shaolin Soccer" or video games including arcade classic Gunblade NY. However, Maker Faire Rome 2019 - The European Edition is slated to debut a triangular tournament of robot footballers, the RoboCup. Not to be confused with the Paul Verhoeven sci-fi treasure "RoboCop." Teams from Rome's own Sapienza University, as well as German and Swiss universities, will compete. The Maker Faire RoboCup is slated to pit autonomous, humanoid robotics against one another in a demonstration of groundbreaking robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).

As Daniele Nardi, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the Sapienza University of Rome and coordinator of the homonymous area of Maker Faire Rome reveals, "Artificial intelligence is a scientific challenge, which has accompanied my entire career as a researcher. In this phase, the results of research can effectively lead to the creation of systems that can contribute to the development of our society in many aspects, as has also emerged from the Ital-IA conference, organised by the Laboratory Cini Aiis last March. And this is precisely the objective that the space dedicated to Artificial Intelligence systems has set for itself: to show the opportunities offered by IA technologies, referring mainly to industrial systems, in order to highlight that it is not only the world of research that is committed to the theme of Artificial Intelligence, but that the technological transfer towards the world of production is already underway."

AI continues to evolve and improve, manifesting in several ways, from video games to healthcare and data security. However, there are still plenty of kinks as anyone using consumer-facing AI can reveal. Sure, Skynet hasn't launched a full-scale invasion, and no robot overlords refuse to open the pod bay doors. In fact, half the time, my Amazon Alexa unit doesn't respond when I direct a question at it, but begins playing music randomly when I'm talking to my dog. 

Still, consumer AI has improved leaps and bounds as evidenced in the likes of Google Lens, improved video game AI, and more. It's at events such as Maker Faire Rome 2019 where mind-blowing artificial intelligence showcases seek to demonstrate the full potential of AI. We here are Electromaker are excited to cover Maker Faire Rome 2019 - The European Edition on the ground! Stay tuned for more coverage as we lead up to Maker Faire Rome 2019, plus live and post-event coverage.