The UT Austin Villa RoboCup Team (pink) plays at the 2012 Robot Soccer World Cup in Mexico City. Credit: The University of Texas at Austin

UT Austin Villa, a team of computer science students led by professor Peter Stone, won two 2012 Robot Soccer World Cup division championships during RoboCup 2012 last week in Mexico City

The annual tournament, founded in 1997 to foster innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics research, is often touted as the world's biggest robotics and artificial intelligence event.
Though the competition is fun, the AI research that is required to compete could someday lead to enhanced bomb-searching robots; autonomous cars that increase traveling efficiency and reduce automobile accidents; self-healing, smart computers; and AI agents that manage business supply chains more effectively than humans.
UT Austin Villa defended its 2011 3D Simulation League title, featuring artificially intelligent robots that compete in simulated soccer games.
For the first time in university history, the Texas team also won the RoboCupSoccer Standard Platform League (SPL) competition — one of the highest profile leagues at RoboCup.

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