Welcome to Sydney
After 1 year in the making, the long-awaited moment is finally here! Today starts the 2019 edition of the RoboCup event. It will last until the 8th of July and this year, it takes place in Sydney, Australia.
Génération Robots, as a member of both the FFROB (French Federation of Robotics Football) and the RoboCup Junior organisation board, attended the event, along the French delegation. Read on to learn more about this unique event!
First off, what is the RoboCup?
The RoboCup adventure starts in 1997 with a crazy bet: create a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players by 2050, that will win a soccer game against the winner of the most recent World Cup.
Since then, researchers and enthusiasts meet every year in a different country, to compete against one another, and move robotics research forward. At first, the only existing league was the “soccer” league. Today, the teams can choose between 15 different leagues: @home (domestic robots), industrial challenges, hostile environment, etc.
Since its beginning, RoboCup has evolved and today, the competitors are not only researchers, but is also open to the youngsters: it’s the RoboCup Junior!
With 3500 competitors, from 45 different countries, RoboCup is the world biggest robotics competition!
When will it start?
The event started on the 2nd of July, however, the RoboCup challenges begin on the 4th of July. The teams have 48 hours to get ready for the big day!
Even for the seasoned teams, last minute adjustments will be needed (depending of the light, the sound, the maps layout).
Right now, the Junior teams will have to wait a little bit more to test their robot, as their pitches are still being set up!
Why is there a French delegation?
If you have been following the RoboCup latest news, you might have heard that the city of Bordeaux, France, will host the RoboCup in 2020!
The role of the French delegation is to do some field work, and gather some ideas and info that they will be able to use to organise next year RoboCup in Bordeaux.
In addition to the French delegation, 6 Major French teams and 8 Junior French teams will compete this year. Amongst the Major teams is the 3 times world champion team: Rhoban System (Kid-size humanoid soccer league). Will they add a fourth star to their “jersey”? We’ll know in a few days!