RoboCup

RoboCup is an annual international robotics competition founded in 1996 by a group of university professors (including Hiroaki Kitano, Manuela M. Veloso, 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". Peter Stone is the current president of RoboCup, and has been since 2019. The official goal of the project: "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." 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) (Standard Platform League Homepage) Small Size League Middle Size League (Middle Size League Homepage) 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, 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, which debuted in 2016, "targets the use of robots in work-related scenarios" RoboCupJunior 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.