Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
movements in such a way as to achieve the maximum performance from
every player.
In 2002 a HuroSot
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league was inaugurated within the world of robot
Soccer. The purpose of the HuroSot league is to encourage the develop-
ment of humanoid robots that can play Soccer well, not only against
teams of other robots but also against teams of human opponents. The
maximum height of the robots in this category is 5 feet and their maxi-
mum weight is 66 pounds. There are also restrictions on the size of the
robots' feet in this category and a humanoid is only permitted to have
two legs! Each HuroSot robot must be fully independent in terms of its
sensing, its computational capabilities and its walking—nothing in the
robot may be controlled remotely.
With the development of humanoid robots not yet at a point where
a team of them could play a Soccer match, a small number of challenges
have been set by FIRA and RoboCup as benchmarks, for example, stand-
ing on one leg, taking a penalty shot at the goal, and walking. The ulti-
mate aim of those working on humanoid Soccer players, as stated by the
RoboCup group, is
By the year 2050 a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots will
be developed that can defeat the winning human World Cup team
in Soccer. [1]
And when that encounter does take place, the programmers of those
humanoids will be able to ensure that none of their team members fouls
anyone on the opposing team or swears at the referee.
A Robot Sports Miscellany
Although Soccer is by far the most popular human sport to have at-
tracted the attention of robot scientists, there are several other sports, all
presenting different technical challenges, that have been the subject of
serious research efforts. This section presents a brief survey of some of
them.
A few of these activities are contested on a regular basis at events such
as the Robolympics and Robot Olympiad,
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in which amateur robot de-
3
Human Robot World Cup Soccer Tournament.
4
These two events, though similarly named, are promoted by different robot organisations—the
International Robot Olympiad Committee and the World Robot Olympiad respectively. Neither of
these organisations is affiliated with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), yet!
