Korea triumphs in robot soccer

Korea triumphs in robot soccer

With the help of IEE sponsorship and the support of the Open University and the University of Plymouth the England robot football team competed in the 1998 World Robot Football Championships. Alongside the 1998 FIFA World Cup, the FIRA (Federation International Soccer Association) Robot Football World Cup was held at the magnificent Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, Paris between June 30 and July 8 1998. Over 60 teams competed including representatives from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy,Japan, Korea, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Spain, the USA and Sweden. The exciting scientific challenge of robot football brought together the world's top robotics and AI research labs.

England's first game, held the day after Glen Hoddle's men had lost to Argentina, was against the much fancied Brazilians. In front of an impressively large crowd and the world's media England took a shock 1-0 lead. The vociferous Brazilian fans were reduced to silence. Unfortunately this triumph was short lived, the Brazilians eventually completing an emphatic 17-7 victory. England's performance was described by the Indian referee as plucky, "considering that for much of the match the English players were unable to see the ball I think they performed exceptionally well" he was reported as saying.

Four main categories of robot football competition were held based on the size of the robot players. Robots up to a maximum size of 4.5, 7.5, 15 and 50cm each have their own competition. All categories have one thing in common: the robots are entirely autonomous. Once the whistle is blown the robots start playing without any human intervention except for the referee. Each match lasts 20 minutes consisting of two ten-minute halves. The robots alone decide their moves using some form of collective game strategy, and attempt to score as many goals as possible.

The joint OU, University of Plymouth and IEE team competed in the Mirosot (Micro Robot Soccer Tournament)category for robots up to a maximum 7.5cm cube. Because of the relatively lower costs involved this is the most popular category of robot football. Each team has its own camera situated about two metres above the 1.3 × 0.9m playing area. PC-based, real-time image processing identifies the position of the match ball (a standard orange golf ball) and the positions and orientations of the six robot players (three on each team, a goalkeeper and two outfield players). A game strategy, held in the PC, decides on the best movements for the three home players. Commands are then transmitted to the robot players via a UHF radio signal. Simultaneously the opposition are operating their own cunning plans to outwit these manoeuvres.

The ultimate aim of robot football is to investigate, by means of true-to-life experiments, the conditions which lead to the emergence of collective intelligence. This technology has been identified as crucial to the effective development of the next generation of field robots. Field, or autonomous robots, are destined to play a major part in a wide range of applications from agriculture to space exploration and eventually in the home as domestic servants.

As predicted by both experts and bookmakers, the Mirosot World Cup Final pitted Brazil against Korea. Also as expected the Korean "Keys" team proved to be much too strong for the Brazilians winning by 25 goals to nil. This score is a fair reflection of the dominance of Korea at this level of robot football. The challenge is for the rest of the world to bridge the gap and beat Korea at the 1999 Mirosot cup in Brazil.

Any individaul or group interested in developing robot football should contact Paul Robinson at probinson@plymouth.ac.uk

The complete results of the 1998 La Coupe du Monde des Robots Footballers may be found at: http://www.citesciences.fr/home-html/

Details of the Federation of International Robot Soccer Association are given at: http://www.fira.net/fira/index.html