UQRoboroos aim high in robotic soccer stakes

It may not have the same popularity as the World Cup, but the stakes will be high when a University of Queensland team does battle on the soccer field - with robots.

The University's Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department has entered a team in the 1998 Robot World Cup, to be held in July in Paris.

A team of 11 engineering students, comprising both postgraduates and undergraduates, have
formed a team dubbed the UQRoboRoos to compete in RoboCup-98.

The inaugural competition was held in Nagoya, Japan, in 1997.

Following a five-month effort, the students are making final touches and setting strategic moves on a specially-designed computer system in preparation for the competition.

RoboCup-98 starts on July 2 and will culminate in the finals on July 8, the day legions of fans will tune in for the human World Cup Soccer semi-finals.

Lecturer Dr Gordon Wyeth said the robots would play with a golf ball on a miniature soccer field the size of a ping pong table. A team has five a side, including a goalie.

Each robot moves on wheels and has a camera overhead which monitors the game and sends signals to the robot telling it to move in a kicking motion.

Once a team member hits a start button the game is controlled by robots.

Similar to a human indoor soccer game, the aim is for robots to knock the ball into a goal at the other end of the table.

Dr Wyeth said while the stakes were high in the competition, which last year was won by Carnegie - Mellon of the USA, the University of Queensland team was well-prepared.

'We have a spare robot in the inevitable event of injury,' said Dr Wyeth.

RoboCup-98 is expected to attract more than 80 university teams from around the globe.

Unlike the World Cup Soccer, played every four years, the event is held annually with the aim to have by the mid-21st century a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot scoccer players win a game of soccer, complying with the official rules of the FIFA, in a competition against humans.

Dr Wyeth said the competition originated to promote state-of-the-art robotics research as well as provide a platform for project-oriented education.

'It aims to produce a competitive testbed where designers can try out their latest ideas. The end result will be better robots,' Dr Wyeth said.

Twelve universities are registered in the University's league competition of small-sized robots.

For further information contact Gordon Wyeth on (07) 3365 3770.