Comments on: Robot-Goalkeeper Technology: Germany’s Latest Invention to Stop Luca Toni… Meet Goalias

By: Marco Pantanella

Marco Pantanella — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:20:48 +0000

Thanks for your insight Benjamin, and very cool videos (especially the first one with Mario Gomez).

Benjamin said:
finally, the system we built assumes the ball is being kicked from the official penalty kick point (11 meters away). the only reason we did this was because it simplifies calculating the balls trajectory (it was only a 6 month project). it would not be very difficult to modify to work with all balls kicked from surrounding locations.

I guess that will be your next challenge then!

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:56:11 +0000

oh and if ur interested in better videos:

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLpqxJOl1K8
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xez8y_wvi1M
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1cvdfAJEEM
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkR8KYzz42M

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:54:51 +0000

I designed the ball recognition system for the GoalIAS system so i can elaborate on how it works. Marco is generally correct in what he wrote except for a few things.

The cameras are indeed fixed around the field but this does not limit the system in any way. It is true that the system we built will not work if there are players in the cameras’ field of view but this is simply because the cameras are only black and white cameras. by using color cameras one could work around this by using, for example, an orange ball.

with regards to curved balls…the system does account for these shots as well and can easily save curled shots as well. balls with a high degree of rotation and kicked at speeds > 100km/hr into a corner have a high probability of scoring though. this is mainly because we only used 3 cameras and the visibility in the corners is somewhat limited.

finally, the system we built assumes the ball is being kicked from the official penalty kick point (11 meters away). the only reason we did this was because it simplifies calculating the balls trajectory (it was only a 6 month project). it would not be very difficult to modify to work with all balls kicked from surrounding locations.

By: John

John — Sun, 11 May 2008 04:21:07 +0000

this sounds like a good idea but doesnt have a practical side to it and if they could me it usable in a real match it wouldnt react in time

By: GT

GT — Sat, 10 May 2008 20:20:39 +0000

Is it possible that clubs would be replacing human keepers or other players with robots like this? That would be the end of football. I hope that that is not the way this is going.

By: Germany unveil secret weapon before Euro 2008

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By: Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:44:16 +0000

Really interesting article Marco, just reading on your comments really. It would be f*cked if Raidi Jaidi started doing his tricks!

By: No Need For Real Players Anymore | The Offside

No Need For Real Players Anymore | The Offside — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:09:17 +0000

[…] This is Goalias. He’s a robot designed by the University of Stuttgart in the mold of a goalkeeper (presumably after the home team’s Champions League run). Goalias is a cardboard cut out placed on a running track attached to video cameras and all sorts of fancy equipment which, as you can see, can track the path of the ball. First player to test it out was Mario Gomez. The robot saved half of Mario’s shots, which isn’t much more than the goalkeepers of the Bundesliga can say. […]

By: Marco Pantanella

Marco Pantanella — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:40:53 +0000

Spitfire: Thanks! I find these bits of news who are “out of the ordinary” always interesting.

SpiralArchitect: Cheap shot…

Ahmed I’m afraid not, at least not yet. From what I gathered on the official website and the distance the shots were taken, several conditions need to be satisfied for GoalIAS to work.

First, there absolutely can’t be any player interfering with the viewing path of the videocameras. That is, except for the ball and the shooter no one can be in close proximity to the goal or anywhere between the shooter and the “keeper”, something which would be impossible to achieve in a real-time match.

Secondly, the cameras are “fixed”. That is, they are not mobile, and they always point in the same direction. As such, the shots probably have to be taken from the same distance every time. Shoot from a little bit farther away, and the processor probably will no longer be able to compute the ball trajectory. Not to mention that any “curling” shots would be impossible to trace…

The May 22 test vs. the German Women’s National team is probably the same that Mario Gómez did: take a series of shots from a fixed position.

As for using this as a training tool for young kids… well, aside from the practical applications and everything (cost, maintenance, etc.) what would be the interest of facing an almost infallible goalkeeping machine (other than mere curiosity)? Teach the kids how to curl the ball in order to “outsmart” the robot? I fail to see the usefulness. Football is a game played against human opponents, with all the qualities and “defects” that humans bring. Learning to play the game also involves trying to exploit those defects, like fakes and dummies to send the keeper the wrong way on one-on-ones for example. You can’t really learn that from a machine…