Robots take on soccer in Caltech competition

PASADENA, Calif. -- Now the robots are even taking over soccer.

At Caltech, students fielded teams of soccer-playing robots Tuesday in the Tridroid Cup, a tournament designed to test engineering skills in a competitive field.

The cup is the culmination of four years of learning robotics theory, put into practice. The 31st annual event featured five teams, each operating three robots built from scratch that are supposed to navigate a complex obstacle course and shoot balls into the soccer goals.

Of course, just like movie robots that rebel against their programmers or go horribly wrong, these 'bots didn't do everything they were told. Some smashed into objects and one even caught on fire.

Perhaps that's one sign the robots actually aren't that close to taking over real soccer.

"David Beckham doesn't catch fire on the field, so I would say definitely not!" said student Catherine Pavlov.