An American team of robots have defeated their Australian rivals in a game of football to win the RoboCup Challenge after technical problems plagued the Australian side.

The University of Texas at Austin’s Austin Villa beat the University of New South Wales’ Runswift 7-3 during China’s World Robot Conference. Jeremy Collette, from the University of New South Wales in Australia, bemoaned the glitches that hampered Runswift.

Robot soccer matches have been played since the mid-1990s and this competition used Nao robots – human-shaped automatons about 58 cm tall developed by French company Aldebaran Robotics.

Programmed by advanced programming students at the universities, the robots exchanged information wirelessly and “bet” on which of their teammates would reach the ball first.

Robot soccer matches have been played since the mid-1990s, and this competition used Nao robots, human-shaped robots about 23 inches (58 cm) tall developed by French company Aldebaran Robotics.

Programmed by advanced programming students at the universities, the robots exchanged information wirelessly and ‘bet’ on which of their teammates would reach the ball first.