Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IMLHaving Fun with Quick Image Processing and Highly Dynamical Drive
Prior to the Soccer World Championship 2006 in Germany a team, headed by Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Michael ten Hompel, combined the know-how of Fraunhofer IML and the Chair of Materials Handling and Warehousing of the TU Dortmund to develop a robot-like automatic goal keeper. The result was the »RoboKeeper« which functions like a classical Tipp-Kick goal keeper. However, the RoboKeeper can automatically hold on to the ball, even a penalty kick, with an acceleration faster than that of any Formula 1 racing car.
The system consists of a goal keeper dummy equipped with an efficient and dynamic motordrive combination. The drive is connected to the motor control, two cameras, an image processor and the respective software.