A Shrewsbury primary school has been chosen to participate in a new EU-funded RoboSoccer project which involves youngsters building robots to play football.

Three pupils from Belvidere School in Crowmere Road will take part in the Comenius RoboSoccer scheme from now until July 2010. Cameron MacMillan, Thomas Hyde and Heather Wadey will visit Germany in March.

They will take in sights such as Neuschwanstein Castle which featured in hit movie The Great Escape.

The first project preparation meeting will be held in the school’s robotics lab at The Alcoa Centre after school next Wednesday.

The pupils will also visit Graz, Austria, for the RoboCup 2009 between June 29 and July 6.

“This is the second EU Comenius RoboSoccer project in which Belvidere School has been involved,” said Dr Ashley Green, of the Open University who runs the school’s robotics club.”I took two pupils to Bavaria in March 2006, and I took six pupils to Bremen for RoboCup 2006 in June 2006. Those were excellent experiences for everyone involved.”

RoboCup organisers, the RoboCup Federation, aim to produce a humanoid robot football team capable of beating the human World Cup champions by the year 2050.

Last year robotics teams from across Britain travelled to Belvidere School for the national finals of RoboCupJunior 2007.

The teams participated in three competitions including RoboDance, RoboRescue and RoboSoccer.

The challenges included making one or more robots perform to music in a display emphasising creativity of costume and movement.