RoboCup: A Challenge Problem for AI and Robotics

Abs t rac t . RoboCup is an attempt to foster AI and intelligent robotics research by providing a standard problem where wide range of technologies can be integrated and exaznined. The first R o b o C u p competition was held at IJCAI-97, Nagoya. In order for a robot team to actually perform a soccer game, various technologies must be incorporated including: design principles of autonomous agents, multi-agent collaboration, strategy acquisition, real-time reasoning, robotics, and sensorfllsion. RoboCup is a task for a team of multiple fast-moving robots under a dynamic environment. Although RoboCup's final target is a world cup with real robots, RoboCup offers a softwaxe platform for research on the software aspects of RoboCup. This paper describes technical chalhmges involw~d in RoboCup, rules, and simulation environment.