RoboCup explained

RoboCup is an annual international robotics competition founded^[1] in 1996 by a group of university professors (including Hiroaki Kitano, Manuela M. Veloso, Itsuki Noda and Minoru Asada). The aim of the competition is to promote robotics and AI research by offering a publicly appealing – but formidable – challenge.

The name RoboCup is a contraction of the competition's full name, "Robot World Cup Initiative" (based on the FIFA World Cup), but there are many other areas of competition such as "RoboCupRescue", "RoboCup@Home" and "RoboCupJunior".

The official goal of the project is:

"By the middle of the 21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win a soccer game, complying with the official rules of FIFA, against the winner of the most recent World Cup."^[2]

RoboCup leagues

The contest currently has six major domains of competition, each with a number of leagues and sub-leagues. These include:

• RoboCup Soccer
  • Standard Platform League (formerly Four Legged League)
  • Small Size League
  • Middle Size League
  • Simulation League
    • 2D Soccer Simulation
    • 3D Soccer Simulation
  • Humanoid League
• RoboCup Rescue League
  • Rescue Robot League
  • Rescue Simulation League
  • Rapidly Manufactured Robot Challenge
• RoboCup@Home,^[3] which debuted in 2006, focuses on the introduction of autonomous robots to human society
  • RoboCup@Home Open Platform League (formerly just RoboCup@Home)
  • Robocup@Home Domestic Standard Platform League
  • RoboCup@Home Social Standard Platform League
• RoboCup Logistics League, which debuted in 2012, is an application-driven league inspired by the industrial scenario of a smart factory
• RoboCup@Work,^[4] which debuted in 2016, "targets the use of robots in work-related scenarios"
• RoboCup Junior^[5]
  • Soccer League
  • OnStage (formerly Dance) League
  • Rescue League
  • Rescue CoSpace League

Each team is fully autonomous in all RoboCup leagues. Once the game starts, the only input from any human is from the referee.^[6]

RoboCup editions

The formal RoboCup competition was preceded by the (often unacknowledged) first International Micro Robot World Cup Soccer Tournament (MIROSOT) held by KAIST in Taejon, Korea, in November 1996. This was won by an American team from Newton Labs, and the competition was shown on CNN.^[10]

RoboCup was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The planned host location of Bordeaux went on to host in 2023.

RoboCup Asia-Pacific editions

Notes and References

1. 10.1.1.49.7511 . RoboCup: The Robot World Cup Initiative . RoboCup . 1995.
2. Web site: RoboCup: Objective . 1998 . RoboCup . 2014-01-26.
3. Web site: RoboCup@Home – Where the best domestic service robots test themselves . . RoboCup@Home . Robocup Federation, Inc. . 4 October 2022.
4. Web site: Welcome to RoboCup@Work! . . RoboCup@Work . Robocup Federation, Inc. . 4 October 2022.
5. Web site: RoboCupJunior – Creating a learning environment for today, fostering technological advancement for tomorrow . junior.robocup.org . 2018-04-16.
6. Web site: A New Goal for Open Source . . 20 May 2008 . Red Hat Blog . Red Hat, Inc. . 4 October 2022.
7. Web site: RoboCup WM 2016 kommt nach Leipzig. 22 July 2014 .
8. Web site: RoboCup2017 Nagoya Japan(ロボカップ2017) . 2017-04-03 . 2017-04-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170404215624/http://robocup2017.org/eng/ . usurped .
9. Web site: Voice News . 23 July 2024 .
10. Web site: Robot Soccer at Newton Research Labs . www.newtonlabs.com . 2019-12-06.
11. Web site: ICCA member press release: Thailand Robotics Week 2017 & RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2017 . 2021-08-04 .
12. Web site: Statement from RoboCup Federation and Bordeaux RoboCup LOC: Corona Virus (COVID-19) . 2020-07-01 . robocup.org.