RoboCup is an international research and education initiative. Its goal is to foster artificial intelligence and robotics research by providing a standard problem where a wide range of technologies can be examined and integrated. The concept of soccer-playing robots was first introduced in 1993. Following a two-year feasibility study, in August 1995, an announcement was made to introduce the first international conferences and soccer games. In July 1997, the first official conference and game was held in Nagoya, Japan. Followed by Paris, Stockholm, Melbourne and Seattle, the annual events attracted many participants. Following previous conferences and games, the 6th RoboCup will be held in Fukuoka, Japan in cooperation with Busan, Korea in June, 2002. This RoboCup will coincide with the"2002 World Cup Korea/Japan".Today, more than 3,000 researchers from 35 countries and regions are participating in various projects such as international games, conferences, research and educational programs.

NEW LANDMARK PROJECT

Apollo achieved the goal: "Send a man to the moon and return him safely." Scientists and engineers met the challenge by establishing new technologies to achieve preeminence in space. RoboCup has now taken up the challenge of developing humanoid robots capable of playing soccer at a professional level. To achieve this tremendous feat of scientific engineering, problem related to artificial intelligence and robotics must be solved. The ultimate goal of the RoboCup project is "By the year 2050, develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world soccer champion team".

EXPANDING DOMAINS

From the beginning, a soccer game was chosen as the primary domain for this objective, current RoboCup activities are focused in three areas : RoboCupSoccer, RoboCupJunior, and RoboCupRescue.

RoboCupSoccer
The main focus of the RoboCup organization is competitive soccer. Games are important opportunities for researchers to exchange technical information.
They also serve as a great chance to educate and entertain the public. RoboCupSoccer is divided into the following leagues:

1. Simulation league
2. Small-size robot league (f-180)
3. Middle-size robot league (f-2000)
4. Four-legged robot league
5. Humanoid league

RoboCupRescue
Disaster rescue is one of the most serious social issue which involves very large numbers of heterogeneous agents in the hostile environment. The intention of the RoboCupRescue project is to promote research and development in this socially significant domain.at various levels involving multi-agent team work coordination, physical robotic agents for search and rescue, information infrastructures, personal digital assistants, a standard simulator and decision support systems, evaluation benchmarks for rescue strategies and robotic systems that are all integrated into a comprehensive systems in future.
RoboCupRescue is divided into the following leagues:

1. RoboCupRescue simulation league
2. RoboCupRescue robot league

RoboCupJunior
RoboCupJunior is a project-oriented educational initiative that sponsors local, regional and international robotic events for young students. It is designed to introduce RoboCup to primary and secondary school children, as well as undergraduates who do not have the resources to get involved in the senior leagues. The focus in the Junior league is on education.