Hiroaki Kitano

RoboCup-Rescue: an international cooperative research project of robotics and AI for the disaster mitigation problem

This paper introduces the RoboCup-Rescue Simulation Project, a contribution to the disaster mitigation, search and rescue problem. A comprehensive urban disaster simulator is constructed on distributed computers. Heterogeneous intelligent agents such as fire fighters, victims and volunteers conduct search and rescue activities in this virtual disaster world. A real world interface integrates various sensor systems and controllers of infrastructures in the real cities with the real world. Real-time simulation is synchronized with actual disasters, computing complex relationship between various damage factors and agent behaviors. A mission-critical man-machine interface provides portability and robustness of disaster mitigation centers, and augmented-reality interfaces for rescue in real disasters. It also provides a virtual- reality training function for the public. This diverse spectrum of RoboCup-Rescue contributes to the creation of the safer social system.

RoboCup as a research program

An overview of RoboCup (The World Cup Robot Soccer), which offers opportunities for AI and robotics research by providing an attractive but formidable challenge. It also provides a range of challenge programs which is designed to evaluate specific technical issues. The challenge program will be up-dated and new challenges will be offered as technology progresses. Along with other programs such as an education program, RoboCup offers a comprehensive research program which promotes AI and robotics.

Progress in RoboCup Soccer Research in 2000

In addition to researchers in AI and robotics, RoboCup attracts ordinary people, especially kids, high school and university students. Over 3000 people from 35 nations around the world have participated in RoboCup since the great success of the First Robot World Cup Soccer Games and Conferences, RoboCup-97 [1] held in conjunction with the Fifteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-97). Every year, the number of participating teams is increasing about 50%, that is, 35 teams in RoboCup- 97, 64 teams in RoboCup-98 [2], and 90 teams in RoboCup-99 [3], and almost same number of teams in RoboCup-2000. Attendance in 2000 was impacted by the application of a new qualification process, difficulties for some of the European teams to travel to Australia, and by the addition of a European RoboCup competition, EURO-2000. This paper focuses on a discussion of the challenging research problems present in RoboCup and how they have been concretely addressed in RoboCup competitions in 2000.

A Review of Robot World Cup Soccer Research Issues RoboCup: Today and Tomorrow

RoboCup is an increasingly successful attempt to promote the full integration of robotics and AI research. The most prominent feature of RoboCup is that it provides the researchers with the opportunity to demonstrate their research results as a form of competition in a dynamically changing hostile environment, defined as the international standard game definition, in which the gamut of intelligent robotics research issues are naturally involved. This article describes what we have learned from the past RoboCup activities, mainly the first and the second RoboCups, and overview the future perspectives of RoboCup in the next century.