It's got all the excitement of real soccer, but without the bad haircuts and big egos. This week the Robot Soccer World Cup debuts at the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence in Japan. Matching robot against robot, RoboCup is making breakthroughs in artificial life and multi-agent collaboration, while providing a few kicks in the process.
"Many previous robotics competitions have often dealt with a single issue, perhaps controls or planning, or mechanical design, and almost always with a single robot in a fairly controlled domain," explains Sean Luke, head of the University of Maryland team. "RoboCup hopes to bring this up a notch by challenging people to design teams or robots that cooperate towards a common goal, in a very dynamic, noisy, problematic domain."
There are three leagues in this year's competition, each playing 10-minute games. In the small robot competition, a half dozen five-inch diameter robots "kick" an orange golf ball around a ping pong table-cum-soccer field. The middle-size league uses larger robots and an actual soccer ball in a small carpeted room, and the simulator league pits virtual teams on a computer software game.
The 42 teams have taken markedly different approaches to the problems of teamwork, vision systems, and movement. Drive mechanisms vary from radio-controlled cars to the University of Melbourne's flying saucers, using rolling balls driven by two separate shafts that allow any side of the robot to be the front. Some of the teams, such as the USC robots, are fully automated so that each robot operates uniquely; others rely on a central computer using radio communication to guide team members. The simulator bots utilize embedded learning systems, explicit goal systems, or genetic programming for dealing with the more complex issues of coordinated teamwork, learning, and dynamic problem-solving.
Despite a few standouts - such as teams from Carnegie Mellon, Osaka, USC, and Humbolt University in Germany - many of the robots are relatively primitive, and have problems chasing their own ball, let alone making a goal. One robot overloaded and began spurting smoke.
Of course, for the RoboCup researchers and scientists, it isn't just friendly competition - the technological breakthroughs will hopefully be applied to future real-world situations. RoboCup chair Hiroaki Kitano envisions teams of robots working together as rescue crews in disaster situations; similarly, Luke envisions robotic warfare or firefighting.
But there's still a way to go - most of the soccer teams currently look more like rolling garbage cans than R2D2. Says Kitano: "It's not possible yet to create a humanoid robot on two feet kicking the ball. Maybe in the future, but not now."
Final games are planned for Thursday. For the losers, there's always a chance for a rematch next year in Paris.
