“By mid-21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win the soccer game, complying with the official rule[s] of the FIFA [Fédération Internationale de Football Association], against the winner of the most recent World Cup.”

This is the official goal of the RoboCup soccer competition, IEEE Spectrum Automaton reports.

The new version of Honda’s ASIMO kicks a soccer ball in the first video below. The next two videos show how RoboCup itself has evolved from the 2007 to the 2011 final.