On Progress in RoboCup: The Simulation League Showcase

The annual RoboCup competitions are certainly relevant to present times as they elect the best team of the current year. With respect to RoboCup’s well-known 2050 vision, however, it is crucial to assess the general progress being made not just qualitatively, but also in a quantitative manner. Although this is difficult to accomplish in most leagues, the recent development and circumstances in the soccer simulation league led to a unique situation which allowed us to perform an extensive experimental evaluation by means of which we can empirically measure the progress of playing performance made over a number of successive years. The findings we present in this paper, in particular the fact that significant improvements in the level of play can be verified quantitatively in the 2D soccer simulation league, may serve as a showcase for the progress made by the RoboCup initiative in general.