It’s almost time for this year’s RoboCup competition in Nagoya, Japan, July 27-30. This event has expanded to include more discussions and competitions in a diverse range of robotics activities. The robots demonstrate incremental developments in autonomous goal-directed behavior, improving a little bit each year. RoboCup is a springboard for discussion of critical areas of robotic development and also provides a showcase for university robotic programs and recruitment.

RoboCup has been held annually for 21 years. More than 3,500 dedicated scientists and developers from more than 40 countries are expected. The event features a number of activities:

RoboCup Soccer includes autonomous mobile robots separated into leagues: Humanoid, Standard Platform, Middle Size, Small Size and Simulation. RoboCup Industrial, includes RoboCup Logistics and RoboCup@Work. It is a competition between industrial mobile robots focusing on logistics and warehousing systems in anticipation of Industry 4.0. RoboCup Rescue includes Rescue Robot League and Rescue Simulation League. It employs technologies developed from RoboCup Soccer, to promote simulations that will contribute toward development of autonomous robots for use in rescue efforts at disaster sites. RoboCup @Home applies these technologies to people’s everyday lives, evaluated according to how the robots cooperate with human beings to complete various tasks. RoboCupJunior includes Soccer, Rescue and Onstage Competition to stimulate children’s curiosity and encourage them to participate in robot design and production. Official RoboCup 2017 Video

Best Goals of RoboCup 2016 (CNET )

Published on Jul 14, 2016

Can Robots Beat Elite Soccer Players? (TEDxYouth)

Published on Apr 23, 2013

As Professor of Computer Science at UT Austin, Dr. Peter Stone’s interests run from competing in the international RoboCup soccer tournament to developing novel computing protocols for self-driven vehicles. His long-term research involves creating complete, robust, autonomous agents that can learn to interact with other intelligent agents in a wide range of complex and dynamic environments.

What Soccer-Playing Robots Have to do with Healthcare (TEDx Talks)

Published on Sep 29, 2012

Steve McGill is a second year PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania studying humanoid robotics and human robot interaction under Professor Dan Lee. As part of Team DARwIn, he captured the first place medal at the international RoboCup humanoid soccer competition in Istanbul, Turkey. Steve is interested in applying this robotic technology for deployment in the field for human intercommunication.