The main focus of the RoboCup competitions is the game of football/soccer, where the research goals concern cooperative multi-robot and multi-agent systems in dynamic adversarial environments. All robots in this league are fully autonomous.
In the Humanoid League, teams of autonomous walking robots with arms and legs and human-like senses play soccer against each other. In addition to the soccer competitions, there are also technical challenges. Teams can also develop and use their own robot hardware, as long as it meets the rule specifications.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 questions studied in the Humanoid League.
All teams in the Standard Platform League use the same type of humanoid robot. This provides a very good evaluation and comparison opportunity of the software developed by the teams for cooperative humanoid multi-robot systems in dynamic environments.
In this league, teams of up to five autonomous robots compete against each other. A regular FIFA soccer ball is used. Teams can design their own hardware, but all sensors and computers must be on board and there is a maximum size and weight for the robots.Research focuses on mechatronic design, control, and multi-agent cooperation at the plan and perceptual levels.
Teams with up to 11 highly agile, small autonomous robots compete against each other. All objects on the field are captured by a standardized image processing system that processes data from multiple cameras and makes it available to all teams.Each team uses its off-field computers for the processing necessary to coordinate and control the robots. The team's developments address different aspects of intelligent multi-robot cooperation and control in a highly dynamic environment with a hybrid centralized/distributed system.
This is one of the oldest RoboCup leagues. The simulation league focuses on artificial intelligence and team strategy. Independent software players (agents) play football on a virtual field in a computer. There are 2 sub-leagues: 2D and 3D.