is_that_so

That video was fantastic! Thanks very much.

Actually there is some room within the RoboCup to experiment with body forms. This year was the first for the 3D simulation league to permit heterogeneous players, and there's some research into how to migrate strategies to different physical forms which is quite interesting.

There is a physical league that uses a fixed platform (the Standard Platform League uses the Nao robot) but the rest of the humanoid league allows you to create your own robots. There are restrictions upon head height, arm span (as a ratio of height), COM height (as a ratio of height) and your senses must be 'human-like' (no Kinect, sonar, lidar etc.).

At this year's world cup we met a team who were using 3D printing for their team's heads, and I'm sure that in the near future we'll see more structural parts being printed. This may require tougher materials with low weight. The heads I saw were quite heavy, though they were quite strong.

I'm really enjoying RoboCup, and I'd like to find a means to transition to working with robotics, so I am particularly interested in what kinds of other areas of research I should be covering, as well as other activities I could get involved in.

Are you familiar with RoboCup? I've been involved in both the simulation and physical humanoid leagues over the last few years and I'm keen to transition from my career as a software developer into robotics.

What kinds of valuable experience can you imagine I may not be receiving through RoboCop that would serve me well? We are a very small team so I've been involved in vision, localisation, motor control, bipedal locomotion and behavioural structuring, just to give you a sense of where I'm at.

Thanks for doing this AMA!