Imagine my surprise when I was asked to help with building a robot supposed to play against five times FIFA player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo! One of the world’s biggest YouTubers Mark Rober and his team asked me if I could help them with software development of a soccer goalie robot. The question that posed itself was whether one of the best football players in the world has any chance against an industrial automation system. Back in 1997 the super computer “Deep Blue” was the first to beat a world class chess master (Kasparov). In 2025, a PLC together with a motion capture system and some powerful drives had a challenge against a world class football player, Ronaldo.
Only a madman would say no to such an opportunity & it’s been one of the funniest projects I’ve ever been involved in! Not only in terms of the possibility to build something that will play against Ronaldo himself, but also in terms of the people I got to work together with. Mark’s team is motivated, driven, creative and a joy to work with! This project (as with many others) shows that PLCs can be used for so much more than manufacturing.
I want to take the opportunity to thank Ian Charnas, Mark Rober, the rest of the team at Crunchlabs, Yaskawa USA, Beckhoff Automation USA & Beckhoff Automation Sverige for the great collaboration!
And how did it go against Ronaldo? Watch for yourself and enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjpjjcMeujM