Madrid’s Polytechnic University has designed and built miniature robot bullfighters, programmed to tackle robot bulls, just like in corridas.

The robots are to be entered into a cyber-technology competition in the Spanish capital.

The contest is a robotic version of a corrida. The bullfighter-robot wears a red balloon. The mechanical matador must dodge the “bull”, which is armed with head-mounted cameras capable of detecting the red colour, and which attempts to pierce the balloon with its horns. The longer the bullfighter-robot resists in the arena with the balloon intact, the more points it wins.

The bullfighter-robot can also have a red cape for fooling the Robotaurus. For each banderilla correctly placed into the back of the bull-robot, the bullfighter-robot scores 15 points more.

At the end of the fight, the public can request the ears and the tail of the bull-robot. A panel decides if the behavior of the bullfighter deserves these trophies: the first ear counts 5 points, the second ear 10 points and the tail 20 points.

Via IOL.

Pics taken from a 2002 PDF document describing the research.