The RoboCup is an international initiative to foster and promote
education, development and research in robotics and Artificial
Intelligence. The idea of RoboCup is to define an ambitious long-term
goal in order to stimulate the development of Science and Technology. The
vision of RoboCup is "By the year 2050, develop a team of fully
autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human soccer world
champion." To choose soccer as a test-bed for robotics research was a
brilliant idea because of two reasons. First, soccer is an ideal
platform to present cutting edge technology to a broad general
audience. Second, the game itself is complex, highly dynamic, and
requires interaction between the agents and their environment. Hence,
it is hard to handle for machines and thus fosters researchers to
invent new ideas and methods in order to solve the challenge. In order
to allow different researchers to use RoboCup as a test-bed for
research it is divided into several leagues like small and larger
wheeled robots, robot dogs, humanoid robots or simply simulated robots. RoboCup
was always a frontier of robotics research. Therefore, in 2002 and
respectively in 2007 RoboCup introduced new leagues for search and
rescue robots and for robots providing services at home. Since 2000
RoboCupJunior is part of RoboCup that is an education initiative for
young people in the age from 10 to 19. The goal is to interest young
people for Science and Technology. Every year the RoboCup
community meets for about a week to hold international competitions in
the different leagues and an international conference. This world
championship for intelligent robots has become the largest and most
important event for robotics research in the world.
RoboCup Soccer
The main focus of
the RoboCup activities is competitive football. The games are important
opportunities for researchers to exchange technical information. They
also serve as a great opportunity to educate and entertain the public.
RoboCup Soccer is divided into the following leagues: - Simulation league
- Small-size robot league
- Middle-size robot league
- Standard Platform league
- Humanoid league
Simulation league
Independently moving software
players (agents) play soccer on a virtual field inside a computer. This
is one of the oldest fleet in RoboCup Soccer. There
are subleagues: 2D, 3D, 3D development and Mixed Reality (formerly
called Visualization). Mixed Reality subleague is using thumb-size
robots (Eco-be system) bridging between simulation and physical robots.3D Simulation
The
simulation league was originally created to research the soccer game at
a higher level than was previously possible in the real world, because
of the contemporary restraints of robotics technology.
While it started out as a two dimensional simulation, later on the 3D
simulation competition (2004) improved on this by adding an extra
dimension. Thereby increasing the realism of the simulated environment
and making it more comparable to the other (real world) RoboCup league
environments; But still being able to simulate more players on the
field than would be practical in, say, the middle size league or even
the small size league. Thus giving rise to higher level research on
larger groups of slightly more realistic soccer playing robots. But it
still where only sphere shaped agents running around the field.
Finally as of 2006 the league simulates 3D models of humanoids, based
on robots used in the non-simulated RoboCup humanoid league. This opens
up opportunities for research on higher level control of humanoid
robots as well as higher level behaviors in humanoid soccer and getting
closer still to how humans play the game.
In reality, all these changes have caused a slight shift in the aim of the 3D simulation competition over the past few years.
Was it initially (and still is in the 2D competition) about finding out
how to create higher strategic behaviors in soccer playing multi agent
systems, now the changes to the competition has lead it to a temporary
slightly lower level of problem solving. This is because of the
increased difficulty of the 3D environment and the problems of
controlling humanoid agents at a more basic level.
Notwithstanding these difficulties in the past few years, we are happy
to say that slowly the 3D simulation competition - now using simulated
humanoid robotic agents- is getting back to a higher level and is yet
again ready for research and development of higher level of tactical
behaviors in the multi agent soccer research area.Links |