Messi must be quaking in his boots... Robocup kicks off in Germany - with the aim of beating human champions by 2050

By Damien Gayle

The Robocup kicked off in Germany this weekend, but it looked like it might be a long time before they're challenging the likes of Lionel Messi.

Students and researchers from all over Europe fielded teams over three days from March 30 to April 1 in Magdeburg, central Germany.

These pictures show German team Bembelbots, from Goethe University, Frankfurt, competing against Spanish side SPIteam from University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid.

More than 35 teams from 12 nations participated in the event, showing off their robots in four different leagues.

The Robocup was established in Japan with the mission of fielding a team of robots capable of winning against the human football world champions by 2050.

Since then it has expanded in other areas including rescue and home help.

According to the Robocup website, the event's aim is to advance the 'state of the art' of artificial intelligence.

'Building a robot to play soccer game itself do not generate significant social and economic impact, but the accomplishment will certainly considered as a major achievement of the field,' the website says.

'We call this kind of project as a landmark project. RoboCup is a landmark project as well as a standard problem.'

The website adds: 'By mid-21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win the soccer game, comply with the official rule of the FIFA, against the winner of the most recent World Cup.

'We propose that this goal to be the one of the grand challenges shared by robotics and AI community for next 50 years.'

Getting shirty: The robots seem to have had some kind of disagreement on pitch - where's the ref?

Skills: A robot of the Spainish SPIteam holds the ball as his opponent tries to challenge for the ball

Saved: The goalkeeper robot of the Spanish SPIteam blocks the ball

Half time oranges: Robots hang on a battery charging station during a break from play