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Robocup: 10 Years of Achievements and Future Challenges

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Robocup: 10 Years of Achievements and Future Challenges AI Magazine Volume 28 Number 2 (2007) (© AAAI) Articles RoboCup: 10 Years of Achievements and Future Challenges Ubbo Visser and Hans-Dieter Burkhard ■ Will we see autonomous humanoid robots that although they can use their bodies, they must play (and win) soccer against the human soccer not cause harm to humans. The robot’s per- world champion in the year 2050? This question formance must therefore be restricted in order is not easy to answer, and the idea is quite vision- to adapt to the situation of cooperating with a ary. However, this is the goal of the RoboCup Fed- human, for example. The robot should have eration. There are serious research questions that soft surfaces rather than a hard metal or plastic have to be tackled behind the scenes of a soccer game: perception, decision making, action selec- body, it should have roughly the same weight tion, hardware design, materials, energy, and as a human, it should not be faster than a more. RoboCup is also about the nature of intelli- human, and so on. In a way, the situation is gence, and playing soccer acts as a performance like conducting the Turing test while restrict- measure of systems that contain artificial intelli- ing the computer to a certain computational gence—in much the same way chess has been power. If indeed we are able to create machines used over the last century. This article outlines the of this kind, then we will also be seeing them current situation following 10 years of research in everyday situations. We may see robots with reference to the results of the 2006 World working with the fire brigade, sitting in a street Championship in Bremen, Germany, and discuss- car, and so on. Technologically, these new es future challenges. robots will require the development and appli- cation of new materials, sensors, and actuators. A World Championship In addition, we must also address the issue of of Soccer-Playing Robots energy. RoboCup is thus an interdisciplinary long-term project. Starting with the vision of the RoboCup Feder- Many researchers in the community are con- ation, we briefly discuss the major differences fronting the question of whether we will actu- from former AI challenges and outline the fed- ally be able to achieve this vision one day. The eration’s statement. The last section consists of uncertainty is part of the attraction of the chal- some statistics for the RoboCup competitions. lenge. Looking back, for example, to the air- craft industry of 100 years ago, researchers The Vision could then only dream of the machines that The vision of robots playing against humans nowadays carry millions of passengers through has presented many challenges. Robots should the air every year. Back then, researchers also be able to handle situations without the need had to find new materials and new technolo- for human assistance. They have to interpret a gies. Competition played a significant role and given situation and use their skills accordingly. was one of the driving forces behind the devel- Given the nature of this dynamic environ- opment. ment—which demands decisions in real time—background knowledge is also essential. Chess or Soccer? This requirement has been underestimated for One of the primary questions RoboCup raises is a long time now and is especially needed if that of the nature of intelligence. Some 50 robots are one day to play against humans. years ago, we believed that intelligence Robots should act appropriately, too; that is, depended on the speed of computation. The Copyright © 2007, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. All rights reserved. ISSN 0738-4602 SUMMER 2007 115 Articles RoboCup is an international joint project to promote AI, robotics, and related fields. It is an attempt to foster AI and intelligent robotics research by providing a standard problem where wide range of technologies can be integrated and examined. RoboCup chose to use soccer game as a central topic of research, aiming at innovations to be applied for socially significant problems and industries. The ultimate goal of the RoboCup project is ”By 2050, develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world champion team in soccer.“ In order for a robot team to actually perform a soccer game, various technologies must be incorporated including: design principles of autono- mous agents, multi-agent collaboration, strategy acquisition, real-time reasoning, robotics, and sensor-fusion. RoboCup is a task for a team of multiple fast-moving robots under a dynamic environment. RoboCup also offers a software platform for research on the software aspects of RoboCup. One of the major application of RoboCup technologies is a search and rescue in large scale disaster. RoboCup initiated RoboCupRescue project to specifically promote research in socially significant issues. Figure 1. The RoboCup Statement. ability to play chess for example was consid- uation platforms in the creation of new solu- ered to be a key to understanding intelligence. tions. Everyday intelligence—something everybody Another area for autonomous robots is a is capable of—has been totally underestimated, catastrophe scenario in which robots locate and as a result, many of the dreams for AI from victims in areas that cannot be accessed by the 1950s failed. A comparison between chess humans (mostly due to dangerous situations and soccer reveals that the requirements for such as gas, heat, collapsing buildings, and so playing soccer are closer to those needed in on). RoboCupRescue offers a thorough test everyday situations. It is also significantly platform for this kind of scenario. Another harder to meet these requirements when using application area is that of everyday environ- computer-controlled machines. ments such as a typical household. A new test Chess has inspired the effort to create a bed that requires special skills was demonstrat- machine with artificial intelligence, and there ed at RoboCup 2006: RoboCup@Home. Robots have been various approaches to achieving this had to fulfill tasks such as opening a door, fol- goal. In the end, the brute-force approach was lowing a human, and so on. The vision also successful, resulting in the 1997 match in includes taking care of the next generation. which Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov. The One of the areas of RoboCup is therefore complexity of chess is undoubtedly high. In designed for children and younger people: the end, however, search methods were able to RoboCupJunior. handle these requirements. Feuilletonists could, however, comfort the shocked audi- Competitions ences with the statement that the computer The first RoboCup world championship was was not really intelligent as such. held in Nagoya, Japan, in 1997. Annual com- petitions, accompanied by a scientific sympo- Soccer-Playing Robots: RoboCup sium, have been carried out ever since, and the Computer programs that can play chess did community is still growing (see figure 2). Start- not, however, answer the question regarding ing with 42 teams in 1997, by 2006 there were the nature of intelligence. Dealing with every- approximately 450 participating teams. In day situations, the combination of and inter- 2006, the number of participants exceeded the action between body and intelligence and the 2500 mark. With a total of 2561 participants— integration and combination of various meth- 1492 in the senior and 1069 in the junior com- ods were challenges in the mid-1990s. petitions—RoboCup is one of the largest (if not Researchers were seeking a new long-term the largest) robotic and AI events in the world. vision, and thus the idea of RoboCup as a test- Soccer-playing robots attract media, and the bed for AI and robotics was born (see figure 1). RoboCup Federation therefore also takes large Friendly competitions have often driven sporting events into account when choosing technical advances—the automobile and air- the locations for the annual event (for exam- craft industries provide prominent examples. ple, World Cups 1998, 2002, 2006, European Competitions have been used as test and eval- Cup 2004, and the Olympic games 2008). 116 AI MAGAZINE Articles The Robot Leagues There is still much to accomplish before we can hope to achieve the 2050 goal. In order to com- 500 pete and indeed cope using the hardware and the technologies from today, several leagues have been created. In 1997 RoboCup had three leagues, the Middle-Size League (MSL), the 375 Small-Size League (SSL), and the Simulation League (SL). Today, with the addition of the Four-Legged League (4LL) and the Humanoid 250 League (HL), the number of soccer leagues is now up to five. Parallel to the soccer leagues, other leagues were also invented in order to tackle other 125 applications. The RoboCupRescue League was established in 2001 with robots and simulation devoted to rescue scenarios, while the compe- 0 titions in RoboCup@Home (established in Bre- men) demonstrate robots used for daily activi- 19971998 ties. The RoboCupJunior leagues include 19992000 20012002 competitions in soccer, rescue, and dance. 2003 2004 2005 2006 They are designed to foster education in schools and are tailored for students aged 8–18 years. The Middle-Size League (MSL) Figure 2. Number of Teams at the RoboCup World Championships. In the middle-size league (MSL), middle-size robots must not exceed a diameter of 50 cen- timeters, a height of 80 centimeters, and a of the teams have kicking devices that allow weight of 50 kilograms (see figure 3). Each them to kick high and pass over the opponent robot has individual sensors and control pro- robots. This makes a whole new range of tacti- grams. Communication between robots can be cal options possible. achieved with a wireless local area network Most of the teams in the MSL have powerful (WLAN).
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