Creating affordable robots for the Middle Size League (MSL) in robot soccer: that’s what the TURTLE 5K project is all about. It’s very challenging to develop robots that can operate autonomously on a soccer field, says project supervisor Frank Steeghs of ACE engineering and consultancy. Developments are rapid, he says, but joining in is costly. For example: in 2012, the original tech United soccer robots were 26 thousand euro each. “Starting from scratch, you’d either have to be willing to do a major investment, or try and set up a platform, which takes a lot of time.”

The budget edition –available for five thousand euro– was realized by redesigning the 2012 TURTLE without compromising any of its capacities. Buyers are free to tinker with the robot, or reprogram it. Recently, ASML presented the first prototype of the TURTLE 5K, after which the robot team was founded. Jelm Franse, head of Mechanical Development at ASML, can imagine the company might found a second robot team in time.