Bend it like NIST -- Dust mite-sized soccer debuts July 7-8 at RoboCup in Atlanta

To win the competition, a nanobot must be fast, agile and capable of manipulating objects. These abilities will be tested in three events: a two-millimeter dash in which each nanobot seeks the best time for a goal-to-goal sprint across the playing field; a slalom drill where the path between goals is blocked by "defenders" (polymer posts) and a ball handling drill that requires robots to “dribble” as many “nanoballs” (microdisks with the diameter of a human hair) as possible into the goal within a 3-minute period.

When:

Saturday/Sunday, July 7-8, 2007 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time

Day 1: Teams will each run three trials of the two-millimeter dash and slalom.

Day 2: Teams will each run three trials of the ball handling drill.

Where:

Technology Square Research Bldg. Room 113C
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Ga.

Registration:

Media must register for credentials at www.georgiarobotics.com/robocup/press-register.html.

Images of the competing nanobots, playing field and nanoball, and a video of a nanobot pushing a nanoball across the field are available at www.nist.gov/public_affairs/calmed/robocup_photos.html.

For more about the Nanogram Demonstration Competition, see www.eeel.nist.gov/812/nanogram/index.html.

For more about RoboCup, go to www.robocup-us.org.