Brazilian Company to Launch Robot Football

According to anba: Have you ever imagined a football game played by robots? Well what may seem like a science fiction movie scene may soon be seen in the electronic games houses in the country. The small technology based company Scientists Associated Technological Development (Cientistas Associados Desenvolvimento Tecnol?gico) should launch, in the beginning of 2006, the first units of the product ‘Sci-Soccer’ or simply, ‘Robot Football’. From the Incubator Centre for Technology Companies (Cinet) of S?o Carlos, city in the interior of the Brazilian southeastern state of S?o Paulo, Scientists Associated is made up by young doctorates – the majority in their 30s and with strong knowledge in the computational mathematics and computer science. Everything started when two of them decided to invest in theoretical knowledge as a competitive differential in the world of business. The project of the game ‘Robot Football’ will be the first of four that are being developed by the company to reach the market. Since November 2003, the company is dedicated to study the development of a software and base platform constituted of an autonomous mobile robot which can be moved by a radio-modem. The launching of the product came closer after Scientists Associated received a new financial contribution of US$ 419,200 from the State of S?o Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp), from the Technological Innovation in the Small Company Programme (Pipe).