RoboCup Soccer

Simulation League

The RoboCup Soccer Simulator is a research and educational tool for multi-agent systems and artificial intelligence. It enables for two teams of 11 simulated autonomous robotic players to play soccer (football).

Small Size League

A Small Size robot soccer game takes place between two teams of five robots each.

Each robot must conform to the dimensions as specified in the F180 rules:

The robot must fit within an 180mm diameter circle and must be no higher than 15cm unless they use on-board vision. The robots play soccer on a green carpeted field that is 4.9m long by 3.4m wide with an orange golf ball. Robots come in two flavours, those with local on-board vision sensors and those with global vision. Global vision robots, by far the most common variety, use an overhead camera and off-field PC to identify and track the robots as they move around the field.

The overhead camera is attached to a camera bar located 4m above the playing surface. Local vision robots have their sensing on the robot itself. The vision information is either processed on-board the robot or is transmitted back to the off-field PC for processing.

An off-field PC is used to communicate referee commands and, in the case of overhead vision, position information to the robots. Typically the off-field PC also performs most, if not all, of the processing required for coordination and control of the robots. Communication is wireless and typically uses dedicated commercial FM transmitter/receiver units.

Middle Size League

Two teams of mid-sized robots with all sensors on-board play soccer on a field. Relevant objects are distinguished by colors. Communication among robots (if any) is supported on wireless communications.

No external intervention by humans is allowed, except to insert or remove robots in/from the field.

Standard Platform League

In the league all teams use identical robots. Therefore the teams concentrate on software development only, while still using s tate-of-the-art robots. The robots operate fully autonomously, i.e. there is no external control, neither by humans nor by computers. In 2008 the league goes through a transition from the four-legged Sony AIBO to the humanoid Aldebaran Nao. 

Humanoid League 

In this league, autonomous robots with a human-like body plan and human-like senses play soccer against each other. In addition to soccer competitions technical challenges take place. The robots are divided into two size classes: KidSize (30-60cm height) and TeenSize (100-160cm height). Dynamic walking, running, and kicking the ball while maintaining balance, visual perception of the ball, other players, and the field, self-localization, and team play are among the many research issues investigated in the Humanoid League. Several of the best autonomous humanoid robots in the world compete in this league.