Japanese leading toy makers Bandai Co, Tomy Co., and Takara Co. Ltd. said on Tuesday that they will cooperate to create the robot soccer machines.

The robots will retail for 4,980 yen to 7,980 yen ($47.20 to $75.60), the Japanese toy makers said in a statement.

The soccer robots will be operated by infrared ray remote controllers, and games between teams of the robots can be played on a table tennis-sized field, the companies said.

The three makers plan to craft rules for competitions in collaborate with the RoboCup Federation, whose ultimate goal is to create a team of robots that can defeat the WorldCup Soccer Championship team by 2050, they said.

Artwork shown not representative of product. It ain't easy to find pictures of soccer-playing robots!

[Updated 3/15//2000]