Iranian robotic teams delivered outstanding performances at the International RoboCup 2015 competitions held at Hefei, China.
Several Iranian universities, including Amirkabir University of Technology and Islamic Azad University (IAU) branches of Qazvin and Yazd, won titles at the 19th edition of the event that ran from July 19-22.
Iranian university teams won six first-place titles in a range of technical areas, including rescue robots, humanoid robots and robot football, said the head of Iranian RoboCup National Committee.
Morteza Mousakhani added that Iranian university teams also won four second-place titles and two third-place titles in the small-sized football robots, teenage and adult size androids, and rescue and relief robot categories, IRNA reported.
Iran's high schools teams Salam and Qalam were also awarded for best scientific presentations.
A total of 175 robot teams from 47 countries and 2,000 contestants took part in this year's event, with the main focus on robot football, service robots and rescue robots.
RoboCup is split into five leagues: small size, middle size, humanoid, standard platform and soccer simulation. Each league poses different challenges, from artificial intelligence to getting humanoid robots to move without falling over.
MRL Champion, Baset Runner-Up
Team MRL of IAU, Qazvin, was crowned champion in the technical category of medium-sized robot footballers. MRL fiercely competed against teams from the Netherlands, Germany, China and Japan.
This year, teams from IAU's Qazvin branch won five titles in different categories. It has emerged as Iran's top team in robotic competitions for several consecutive years.
According to Aljazeera, Iran is an unlikely force in the world of robot soccer in recent years; last year's finals were held in Tehran.
In a tightly fought final this year, a robotic team designed by the University of Pennsylvania and named THORwIn scored five goals compared to four from Iranian team Baset Adult-Size, organizers said on Wednesday.
The game was the final of the largest adult-size category in the RoboCup.
The annual RoboCup is seen by scientists as a way to help promote the cause of designing machines capable of carrying out more complex tasks.
The robots are not human-controlled and play football in a manner resembling young children: swarming around the ball, kicking haphazardly and often falling over.
The first tournament was held in 1997. Its organizers hope to hold competitive humans-versus-robots match by 2050.
