(CNN) – From metaverso to non-fungible tokens (NFT), new technologies are relentlessly changing the way we live our lives. And one of the biggest stages where that happens is sport.

Thanks to artificial intelligence, robotics and other technological innovations, new high-tech sports are taking their first steps worldwide. From a robot that takes the field to play soccer until pilot controlled drone competing with each other, like humans, the machines proved to have their own competitive edge.

AI can now even create new sports, from strategies and rules of the game to the layout of the playing field.

These high-tech sports may sound like they’re from the future, but they already are. These are some of the most innovative.

Sport and technology in one: this is football with drones

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On drone football, teams of three to five pilots score points by flying their “attack” drone through the opponent’s goal, while the opposing drone tries to block them. It features three sets of intense three-minute gameplay in which players must weigh how aggressively they fly against the risk of damaging the drone.

The sport originated in South Korea and the first US drone soccer tournament was held in July last year at the Rocky Mountain State Games in Colorado. The league launched in Colorado, New York, Ohio, and elsewhere, and US Drone Soccer introduced the sport to high schools, where it would be incorporated into an educational program where IStudents learn to build, program and repair drones.

US Drone Soccer will also support the Africa Drone Soccer Challenge for a team of youth players, led by women, which will take place on January 29 in Lagos, Nigeria.

robot soccer

The Robot World Cup Initiative, “RoboCup” for short, is a soccer competition for autonomous robots. It has several leagues, where robots of different sizes have to make independent decisions while communicating effectively with their teammates.

The contest doubles as an international scientific project. In RoboCup Humanoid League, for example, researchers encourage robotics challenges such as dynamic walking and running, kicking a ball while maintaining balance, ball visual perception you team work.

Robots have come a long way since the first RoboCup in 1997, where 40 teams participated and 5,000 spectators attended, but the robots have had a hard time finding the ball and moving, according to the organization’s website. RoboCup 2021 has more than 300 teams, and now, robot they can “reliably find the ball, move very quickly, and start exhibiting behavior” team work“.

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The ultimate goal of RoboCup is that by 2050, “un humanoid robot soccer player team fully autonomous winning football matches, adhering to the official FIFA rules, against the latest World Cup winners”.

drone racing

In first person to see drone racing, pilots steer the drone through intricate race tracks while wearing goggles that stream live video from the drone’s camera, so the pilot feels like he’s flying inside.

That elite pilot They participate in the World Professional Drone Racing League (DRL), which has been televised by major networks, with their special racing drones traveling at 90 miles (145 kilometers) per hour.

Drone racing is believed to have started in Australia around 2010, when pilots attached cameras to their drones and rode them through parks and backyards, according to DRL CEO and founder Nicholas Horbaczewski. Since then, DRL has helped bring sport to the mainstream. Six years after the league’s official launch in 2016, the sport now has 75 million active fans worldwide, Horbaczewski said.

Speedgate

Speedgate It does not require advanced technology to play, but it is a game created by artificial intelligence. This sport combines aspects of helipad, rugby and football, with a Sports field consists of three closed circles arranged in a line. In three seven-minute periods, two teams of six people Pass the ball, either throwing it below the waist or kicking it, with the aim of kicking the ball past the gate to score a goal.

They are used”deep learning algorithm” to generate ideas for every aspect of the game, from gameplay and rules to logos, according to AKQA, the design agency behind Speedgate. him andneural network training team using the rules of about 400 sports. More than 1,000 results were generated, some of which were “really dangerous,” according to AKQA, such as an exploding disc relay in which a disc-like object is thrown at the player exploding on impact. Others are just “very nonsensical,” like “rope racket hot air balloon” in which a team is suspended in a tight rope between two hot air balloons, hit the object with the racket.

Speedgate has been officially recognized by the Oregon Sports Authority and is now a college league across the United States, AKQA said.

segway polo

Segway polo is sports team where players in two-wheeled self-balancing electric vehicles try to score goals by hitting the ball outside the finish line with his sledgehammer.

Originating in the US, this sport is now played in German, Swedish, English, Barbados, Spanish, Lebanese and other countries. The Segway Polo World Championship, named the “Woz Challenge Cup” after Apple founder and Segway polo player Steve Wozniak, was founded in 2006. The Segway Polo Club of Barbados (SPCB) is the most successful team in the history of the sport. , having won the World Championships five times, most recently in 2019.