Bowdoin will host the 2012 RoboCup U.S. Open for the Standard Platform League Saturday and Sunday, April 21 and 22. For the fourth straight year, the event will be held in the Sidney J. Watson Arena.

Teams from Bryn Mawr, Carnegie Mellon, Penn, Texas and Worcester Polytechnic are expected to compete along with Bowdoin’s Northern Bites.

Visit the Northern Bites blog.

“Our robots are considerably faster and more stable,” says team advisor Eric Chown, Bowdoin’s Samuel S. Butcher Associate Professor in the Natural Sciences. “However, the rules have changed this year to make both goals the same color. This means there are no visual cues whatsoever to tell the robots what side of the field they are on.  It’s all part of the plan to make the contest more and more like real soccer every year.”

Matches are scheduled 9:30 a.m.”“5 p.m. Saturday; semi-finals and finals will take place beginning at 10 a.m. Sunday. The event is open to the public and admission is free.