We travel to Lausanne, Switzerland, where the École Polytechnique Fédérale has created a robotic table football. And we are not talking about a football table with a technological setting, or a virtual table football, but this table football has an impersonal adversary, a robot that has the capabilities of an average player. This Spanish invention is one of the most recognized worldwide after Chupa Chups, so its technological namesake could not be missed, this robot that plays table football will delight lovers of this «sport» when they have no one to play with. We tell you a little more about this curious gadget and the history of table football.
To begin with, we will not find in this gadget the typical good wood table, the field of this table football is created in transparent methacrylate, This will help the robot's sensors and superspeed cameras to capture every movement and calculate the next action. of this peculiar robot. The cameras pointed at the pitch are capable of capturing three hundred images per second and are aware of the ball and the situation of all the players at the same time. Then, it is the traditional electric motors that will ensure that the bars that hold the players perform the usual movements, both in rotary movements and impulses and collected to move the players laterally.
Unfortunately, this table football has players with a single leg, the most hated by true lovers of table football, and in Spain the players are physical representations as is, the players have two legs and a torso, they usually represent a team real. Outside of Spain, it is common to find a football table with players that are not very aesthetic and of quite small sizes., which prevents real magic on the pitch, but it is what it is.
According to the developers, the robotic table football has the capabilities of a normal player, little experienced, although something is something. Now they are working on a second robot that allows them to compete with each other, since the current robot is quite lonely. Once the second robot is made, they will put them to play against each other 24 hours a dayThus, they will start an automatic leasing program that leads them to improve their technique and their strategy, to make them true and decent rivals of the people.
History and significance of table football, a Spanish invention
Table football as we know it. In Spain it has taken on special significance, and its playing field is much wider than in other countries, being usually suitable for four players (2vs2). The first patent appeared between 1880 and 1990 in Germany (officially the true inventors), where the model was small in size and with the legs joined in a single blade, something quite unusual in Spain. The idea came from Alexandre Campos Ramírez, a boy wounded during the Civil War who was prevented from enjoying football like the rest of his friends, so he tried to make up for the lack of runners and physical kicks in a board game. Between Alexandre and Francosci Javier Altuna, a Basque carpenter, they gave shape to this idea.
However, after the Civil War, due to the exile of the Spanish, table football began to spread throughout Europe and South America. The game was assumed as a national invention, and although its origins are not, the rules used here and the wide two-legged model are. These would be the official models of the table football:
- The Spanish model, with the curved field descending towards the center and the metal dolls with open legs.
- The international model, with the plastic or wooden dolls and with their legs together.
There is currently a Spanish Football Federation that organizes official tournaments, and accommodates lovers of this "sport" so much ours. The Chinese have Ping-Pong (although he was also born in England), we have Foosball.