It all started when a group of Japanese researchers organized a Workshop on Grand Challenges in Artificial Intelligence in October, 1992 in Tokyo, discussing possible grand challenge problems. This workshop led to a serious discussions of using the game of soccer for promoting science and technology. In June 1993, a group of researchers decided to launch a robotic competition, tentatively named the Robot J-League. Within a month, they received overwhelming reactions from researchers outside of Japan, requesting that the initiative be extended as an international joint project.

The first official RoboCup games and conference was held in 1997 in Nagoya, Japan. Over 40 teams participated (real and simulation combined), and over 5000 spectators attended.

The latest, Third Robot World Cup Soccer Games and Conferences, RoboCup-99, was held July 27 - August 6 at the Stockholm City Conference Center, Stockholm, Sweden. RoboCup-99 Stockholm was co-located with the Sixteenth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-99). This event deserves and receives much press coverage. There are several new and interesting articles describing the tactics of this year's winning team from New Scientists, Science Daily and BBC News.

Currently, RoboCup has several categories:

• Simulator League, where software agents play soccer using the RoboCup soccer server simulator, available from the RoboCup Web page.
• Small Robot League, with teams of up to five real robots of small size (approximately 15 cm in diameter) compete on a 1.525 * 2.74 m field.
• Middle Size Robot League, with teams of up to five real robots of medium size (approximately 50cm in diameter) compete on a 4.575 * 8.22 m field.
• Sony Legged Robot League, teams of up to three Sony legged robots (remember Aibo?)
• Humanoid League, planned to start from 2002

Another exciting research domain, RoboCup-Rescue, targets search and rescue in large scale disasters, such as earthquake which hit Kobe, killing over 5000 people.
This problem is chosen because it is socially significant problem, has common features with game of soccer in various aspects such as dynamic environment, incomplete and noisy information, but has features that are missing in soccer, such as logistics, heterogeneous agents, long-range planning, and emergent collaboration between teams of agents.

More info (including Sony League)

AAAI Robot Exhibition and Challenge

Seems that robot builders experience the greatest thrill while competing in autonomous competitions. These contests test their ability to build robots that can recover from surprise problems. On the other hand, these robots typically involve months (if not years) of development time and cost several thousands of dollars.

The American Association of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) exhibition and challenge probably attracts the most attention. The purpose of the Robot Challenge is to re-invigorate the AAAI Robot Competition by "raising the bar". The task for the robots entering this year's challenge (held from July 18-22 at Orlando, Florida) was to attend the National Conference on AI. Sounds simple? Well, your robot should reach the registration desk (including waiting in a line), navigate to a conference room, take an elevator, schmooze (recognize and interact with distinguished researchers marked by coloured badges to help advance its developer's career), give a two minute presentation about itself and even answer technical questions... Still want to enter?

The rules are quite straightforward: the more your robot can be like a human, the more points he'll get. Now you can imagine why only two teams were bold enough to try to enter the contest this year. But the tactics employed in their creations is little harder to imagine. One of them, Office Boy 2000 from Carnegie Mellon University, is a sonar-guided wheeled robot that literally screams to draw attention and asks people for help (they have to type in directions). The other approach from the University of Southern California involves group of four robots who have taken their personas from animated series South Park. These creations also push their way through crowds, demanding directions. I wonder if any of them persuaded a human to pick it up and carry it to the conference room...

More info on Challenge and Exhibition.

Robot Wars

This was the first and most famous mechanical sporting event that features radio controlled robots (and autonomous robots) in a contest of destruction and survival. Robots are limited only by their weight. Heavyweights weigh up to 170 lbs, or 300 lbs for legged robots. A specially designed arena with mechanical hazards, custom lighting and techno music all add to the drama and excitement of this new sport. If you like to see circular saw blades ripping things off, this is the right contest for you. Some say that it is too destructive, but it draws a lots of publicity to the robotics community. Anyway, it is surely better than watching people pound on each other.

Robot Wars '99 was announced for August 20-22 in San Francisco, California. However, there is no new material on their (otherwise excellent) Web site, and the latest rumors and news from the discussion group say that this event is canceled. This may change soon, so be sure to check back...

More info and (read-only) discussion group.

BattleBots

BattleBots is the new and emerging sport of live robotic combat. BattleBots contestants design and build radio controlled robots weighing up to 300 lbs. and employ an array of destructive weaponry such as hammers, saws, and spikes.

The First Annual BattleBots competition was held at the Cal State Long Beach Pyramid on August 14-15, 1999. First impressions are very positive, as this was carefully planed and organized event: for example, you could watch live Webcasts at ZDTV.com.

Several months ago, Robot Wars has filed a lawsuit in New York against BattleBots, Inc., accusing them of trying to "interfere with Robot Wars", of causing "Robot Wars enormous economic harm". A federal court denied Robot Wars' motion for a preliminary injunction, and after that Robot Wars voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit. Now it seems that we'll have even more combat-style robot contests in the near future...

More info

Robot Rumbles

Robot Rumbles is a new competition event that will incorporate individuals and teams of individuals that will build radio controlled robots for combat battle of skill and endurance. These devices will be in 1 of 4 weight classes: feather weights (5-25 lbs), light weights (26-50 lbs), middle weights (51-100 lbs), and heavy weights (101-200 lbs), and if one desires to build a walking device (legged robots), then that weight class can go as high as 300 lbs. There will be 3 events involved in the competition over a 3 day period:

• a skill competition that will require the robotic devices to maneuver through a maze and/or obstacles
• an one-on-one competition where each robotic device will compete against another competitor in battle for supremacy (matches will last 4 mins)
• an "all out" robot rumble of 8 to 10 robotic devices battling it out in the ring. They will battle for 3 minutes at a time until there are only one or two robotic devices still functioning or still mobile.

All dates will be determined in the future and advertised on the Web pages listed below (it is planned for a May/June 2000). The location is Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

More info

Trinity College Fire Fighting Home Robot Contest

The latest, 6th Annual Trinity College Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest was held at the Trinity College campus in Hartford, CT. on Sunday, April 18, 1999. The goal of the 1999 contest was the same as previous - to build a robot that can find and extinguish a fire in a house. The challenge for the entrants was to build a computerized (not radio-controlled) robotic device that can move through a model of a single floor of a house, detect fire (a lit candle) and then put it out. Robots that accomplish this task in the shortest time won.

This year's contest drew interest from people in all 50 states and 19 countries, and contestants ranged from college professors and engineers to elementary school students. There were two divisions: A Junior division for those in High School and younger and a Senior division for everyone else. Cash prize was awarded to the top winner in each division with additional cash prizes to other participants in those divisions. Other events scheduled during the contest weekend include Robotics seminars and a Robotics exposition.

The 7th Annual Trinity College Contest has been scheduled for April 16, 2000.

More info

Federation of International Robot Soccer Association

The very idea of Robot Soccer was originated in 1995 when an International Organizing Committee for Micro-Robot World Cup Soccer Tournament (MiroSot) was formally initiated. The first MiroSot was held next year, with 23 teams from 10 countries participating. Competitions are now held in MiroSot, NaroSot (Nano Robot World Cup Soccer Tournament) and S-KheperaSot (Single-Khepera World Cup Soccer Tournament). Except for the sizes of robots and playground the game rules for these categories remain the same as for MiroSot. There are plans for Single Humanoid Robot World Cup Soccer Tournament (HuroSot), with size limited to 40 cm and diameter of 15 cm.

The main objective of FIRA is to take the spirit of science and technology to the laymen and the younger generation. FIRA games are therefore held every year with an aim to promote the developments in autonomous soccer robots and intelligent systems that can cooperate with each other and to contribute to the state of the art advancements in these specialized fields. The latest event was held in Brazil from August 4 - 8.

More info

Robothon

This is one-day event where people from all over the world will test their skill in robot competition, including demonstrations and seminars. It includes mix of some unique and other well-known categories form other contests:

• Micromouse
• Firefighting
• Line Following
• Sumo
• Robot Art
• Floor Exercise
• Lego Robot Wars
• Grand Maze

More info

Botball

Botball is a unique program (founded by KISS Institute for Practical Robotics) that provides hands-on technology education to students by linking high schools, engineering companies, and colleges into a synergistic team. The Botball program starts with a three day tutorial for the high school teachers and members of their supporting organizations. In this class, teachers (and corporate volunteers) learn robotic technology and how to integrate robotics into their regular science and math curriculum.

Teachers are then given robot kits to take back to their students. The students, under the guidance of their teachers, and with consultation from members of the supporting organizations, create a robot over the next four weeks to compete in a regional Botball tournament. They also pursue Internet research on robotics topics to participate in the robot application design contest. Both the tournament and design contest include prizes of additional robot equipment for the schools. This equipment then remains with the schools to be used for experimentation and technology education. The latest National Botball Tournament was sponzored by NASA, AAAI and others, and was held on July 20-21 at Orlando, Florida.

More info

Robot Sumo

This is another test of brute force or unusual tactics. It challenges robots to force their opponents out of a 5-foot diameter circular ring. Because the rules are straightforward, sumo robots can be fairly simple and inexpensive. In robot sumo, there are usually two types of robots: the independent type and the radio-controlled type. However, robots must not be fitted with devices for releasing fire, jamming radio signals, or throwing objects, or be built with materials or components which will damage or soil the ring.

Because of its simplicity, there are many variations to the robot sumo rules. One of the best sites devoted to this kind of contests is All Japan Robot Sumo Tournament.

RobotWar3D

RobotWar3Dtm is a non-arcade game designed to challenge your programming skills and strategic thinking. In short, it is for those robot fans who can't build a real thing (either because of the lack of money, experience or something else), but can be equally exciting. Robots may be programmed in Visual Basic, C/C++, Delphi or any other language that can access a Windows 32 bit DLL. Robots turn, change speed, fire missles, cloak and radar scan under your program control. You can use the sample robots (written in Visual basic) as test opponents and as a starting point for your code. RobotWar3D can be freely downloaded - the package size is about 2.5 Mb.

More info