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KIDS IN ACTION Dancing with Robots! | ||||||||||||
RoboCup Junior, the kids' section of RoboCup 2005 Osaka, was held from July 13 to 17, 2005. Robots designed and built by hand were fielded by 161 teams of kids from 18 countries and regions. The teams competed in three categories: robot soccer, robot dancing, and rescue. The dance competition was especially popular among the junior competitors. Participants and their robots performed dances from around the world, and the crowd really got into it. The winning team in the under-14 category was SOHRAN!, a Japanese duo made up of first-year middle school student Kayama Mayumi (12) and elementary school sixth grader Kaneko Satsuki (12).
The two girls used the entire stage to dance along with six robots to the song Sohran Bushi. Sohran Bushi is a jaunty folk song that was traditionally sung by herring fishermen in Hokkaido, Japan's northern island. Ingeniously designed robots representing fish, a boat, a fisherman, and waves performed a distinctive dance in perfect unison. One lively robot was a red fish jumping up and down on a wave, while the lights on a boat made of rope and straw blinked in time to the music. "We programmed the lights to blink in the style of a wave. It was really hard, detailed work," said Kayama. "We draped the boat in a fishermen's flag that was used to pray for a big catch and decorated it to make it stand out," commented Kaneko, whose colorful costume was also based on a fisherman's flag. The girls teamed up after meeting two years earlier in a robot building class. Last year they competed in the soccer category but finished eighth in the national competition, just missing out on qualification for the RoboCup world championship. This year they tried their luck in the dance category and advanced to RoboCup after winning their local competition in February, a regional event in March, and the nationals in May.
"All six robots moved just like we programmed them to," said a thrilled Kaneko. "I was happy that everyone clapped to the beat for us. Dances from all of the countries were full of originality, and it was a lot of fun to watch," added Kayama. A team from Britain took second place, followed by a Chinese team in third. RoboCup was first held in 1997 in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, with the goal of creating a team of robots able to defeat the world champion human soccer team by 2050. Kayama encouraged other kids to take part in the competition. "It's a fun chance to communicate with people from all over the world through robots even if we don't understand each other's languages." The 10th RoboCup will be held alongside the next soccer World Cup in Bremen, Germany from June 14 to 20, 2006. |
