ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University's soccer-playing robots placed second in the Small Size league in the RoboCup 2005 competition held July 13-17 in Osaka, Japan, losing 4-0 in the final match against the FU-Fighters of the Free University of Berlin, Germany.

Provided

Cornell robots in a scrimmage during the RoboCup 2005 competition held July 13-17 in Osaka, Japan.

"It was definitely a bittersweet moment. Our system worked wonderfully all around, and I think the entire team did a spectacular job. We were just beaten by a better team. Many congratulations to the FU-Fighters, who absolutely deserved this win," said Steve Lowe, a member of the electrical design team.

RoboCup is an international competition in which teams of autonomous robots play soccer entirely under computer control. Cornell competes in the Small Size or F-180 league, in which the robots are rolling machines about 8 inches square, playing on a field about 12 feet by 16 feet.

Cornell has won the championship four times, beginning with the 1999 competition in Stockholm, the first time the Big Red team entered. They went on to win in 2000 in Melbourne, Australia, 2002 in Fukuoka, Japan, and 2003 in Padua, Italy.

Team members are Karu Watugala, Oliver Purwin, Eugene Byrne, Sergei Lupashin, Michael Cen, Anshuman Bhairavbhat, Homan Lee, Ivan Han, Hor Siu, Mike McCabe, JinWoo Lee, Steven Keiper, Jeff Johnson, Steve Lowe, Chris Lehmann, Mike Sherback, Len Evansic, Patrick Conrad, Tom Hanselman, Umang Khanna and Mi Zhou. Raffaello D'Andrea, Cornell associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, is team adviser.