RoboCup is an annual international robotics competition founded[1] in 1996 by a group of university professors (including Hiroaki Kitano, Manuela M. Veloso, Itsuki Noda and Minoru Asada). The aim of the competition is to promote robotics and AI research by offering a publicly appealing – but formidable – challenge.
The name RoboCup is a contraction of the competition's full name, "Robot World Cup Initiative" (based on the FIFA World Cup), but there are many other areas of competition such as "RoboCupRescue", "RoboCup@Home" and "RoboCupJunior". Claude Sammut is the current president of RoboCup, and has been since 2019.
The official goal of the project is:
"By the middle of the 21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win a soccer game, complying with the official rules of FIFA, against the winner of the most recent World Cup."[2]
The contest currently has six major domains of competition, each with a number of leagues and sub-leagues. These include:
Each team is fully autonomous in all RoboCup leagues. Once the game starts, the only input from any human is from the referee.[6]
Number | Year | Host City | Host Country | Number of teams | Number of countries | Number of participants | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | RoboCup 1997 | Nagoya | 38 | 11 | |||
2 | RoboCup 1998 | Paris | 63 | 19 | |||
3 | RoboCup 1999 | Stockholm | 85 | 23 | |||
4 | RoboCup 2000 | Melbourne | 110 | 19 | |||
5 | RoboCup 2001 | Seattle | 141 | 22 | |||
6 | RoboCup 2002 | Fukuoka | 197 | 29 | |||
7 | RoboCup 2003 | Padua | 238 | 35 | |||
8 | RoboCup 2004 | Lisbon | 345 | 37 | |||
9 | RoboCup 2005 | Osaka | 387 | 36 | |||
10 | RoboCup 2006 | Bremen | 440 | 35 | |||
11 | RoboCup 2007 | Atlanta | 321 | 39 | 1,966 | ||
12 | RoboCup 2008 | Suzhou | 373 | 35 | |||
13 | RoboCup 2009 | Graz | 407 | 43 | 2,472 | ||
14 | RoboCup 2010 | Singapore | 500 | 40 | 3,000 | ||
15 | RoboCup 2011 | Istanbul | 451 | 40 | 2,691 | ||
16 | RoboCup 2012 | Mexico City | 381 | 42 | 2,356 | ||
17 | RoboCup 2013 | Eindhoven | 410 | 45 | 3,033 | ||
18 | RoboCup 2014 | João Pessoa | 358 | 45 | 2,900 | ||
19 | RoboCup 2015 | Hefei | 346 | 43 | 2,032 | ||
20 | RoboCup 2016 | Leipzig | [7] | 404 | 45 | 3,500 | |
21 | RoboCup 2017 | Nagoya | [8] | 500 | 50 | 2,520 | |
22 | RoboCup 2018 | Montreal | 360 | 40 | 2,345 | ||
23 | RoboCup 2019 | Sydney | 335 | 40 | 2,200 | ||
24 | RoboCup 2021 | Virtual | 317 | 43 | 2,129 | ||
25 | RoboCup 2022 | Bangkok | |||||
26 | RoboCup 2023 | Bordeaux | |||||
27 | RoboCup 2024 | Eindhoven |
The formal RoboCup competition was preceded by the (often unacknowledged) first International Micro Robot World Cup Soccer Tournament (MIROSOT) held by KAIST in Taejon, Korea, in November 1996. This was won by an American team from Newton Labs, and the competition was shown on CNN.[9]
RoboCup was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19. The planned host location of Bordeaux will host in 2023.
Year | Host City | Host Country | Number of teams | Number of countries | Number of participants | Website | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2017 | Bangkok | 130+ [10] | 25 | 1000+ | http://www.robocup-ap2017.org/ | ||
RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2018 | Kish Island | https://robocupap2018.org/ | |||||
Dubai | http://robocupap.org/index.php/dubai2018/ | ||||||
RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2019 | Moscow | https://robocupap2019.org | |||||
RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2020 | Virtual | https://2020.robocupap.org/ | |||||
RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021 | Aichi Prefecture / Virtual | https://2021.robocupap.org/eng/index.html |
Year | Host City | Host Country | Number of teams | Number of countries | Number of participants | Website | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
European RoboCupJunior Championship 2018 | Pescara | http://2018.robocupjunior.eu/ | |||||
European RoboCupJunior Championship 2019 | Hanover | ||||||
European RoboCupJunior Championship 2020 | Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic | ||||||
European RoboCupJunior Championship 2021 | Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic | ||||||
European RoboCupJunior Championship 2022 | Guimarães | http://2020.robocupjunior.eu/ |
•German open in Kassel
•German open
Events were cancelled due to COVID-19[11]