Robot football. Technician programming a robot footballer prior to a game at RoboCup-98, the 1998 World Robot Soccer Championships. This international event aims to create a robotic team within 50 years that can beat the winners of the human World Cup. In the RoboCup, two teams of up to five mobile, co-operative robots play competitive football games against each other. The robot can detect its environment using an array of sensors linked by radio to external control software. It is a Middle-Sized robot (less than 50 cm in diameter). The technician is from the team from Nara University in Japan. RoboCup-98, the second RoboCup, was held in Paris, France.