Robotics competition cornerThe FIRA 1999 Championship
Introduction
From August 4 to 8, 1999, the city of Campinas in Brazil had the honor to host FIRA’s Robot Soccer World Cup, FIRA’99. This was the fourth edition of this annual scientific and technological event, where researchers from all over the world get together to exchange their experiences on building teams of intelligent cooperative robots, to demonstrate their technical achievements, and to have a week of fun watching exciting robot soccer games.
The Robot Soccer World Cup initiative provides scientists with a common arena for research on multi-agent systems, cooperative robotics, distributed control, robot communication, and fault tolerance, while dealing with the issues of adaptation, robustness and real-time implementation.
The event was held at the gymnasium of Campinas’ most traditional school, Colégio Notre Dame. Fifteen teams representing six countries from four continents, selected through regional robot soccer competitions, participated in two categories: Narosot and Mirosot. A scientific workshop was held on the evening of August 6th for the exchange and discussion of the scientific issues behind robot soccer and the applications derived from it. FIRA’99 was attended by an estimated 3000 people, including professionals from all areas of engineering and computer science, university professors, graduate, undergraduate, and high school students.
FIRA’99 was proudly sponsored by Colégio Notre Dame, Sun Microsystems, 3M, and Excelsior, and supported by the Brazilian Society for Automatics.
Section snippets
MIROSOT schedule
Twelve teams registered to compete in the MIROSOT category, where robots must fit in a cube. The teams were divided into three groups of four teams each. Inside each group, teams played against each other, to a total of 18 preliminary games. The three group winners competed among themselves for the right to play the final match. The three teams that classified as second in their groups competed among themselves for the right to dispute the third place.
The overall classification in
Benchmark competition
This year, for the first time, FIRA held a benchmark competition with the aim:
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to set rigorous scientific standards for research into robot soccer;
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to encourage teams to work on the same problems to allow comparison;
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to collect and publish data on robot control and ball control;
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to enable scientific analysis of the performance of teams worldwide;
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to enable any particular team to gauge its performance against these standards;
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to provide a simple baseline from which new scientific benchmarks can be
Scientific workshop
On the evening of August 6th the organizers held a scientific workshop opened to the general public, with the aim of bridging the gap existent between the most current scientific achievements in the area of robotics and the public perception of how and when these achievements will enhance human lives. The workshop was attended by 120 people, including university and high school professors and students, information technology professionals, and members from the press.
The workshop was organized
FIRA survey
FIRA conducted a survey prepared by Dr. Igor M. Verner (Technion, Israel) to assess the educational and technical background of the participants in FIRA’99, as well as their evaluation of how the event contributed to their formation and attitude towards robotics. The contestants were asked to complete the survey forms. Answers were obtained from 30 contestants of 11 teams — the majority of the team members. The survey results are briefly presented below.
Distribution of the respondents according
FIRA’2000
The Fifth FIRA Robot Soccer World Cup will be held in conjunction with the 2000 Olympic Games in Rockhampton, Australia, under coordination of Professor Russell Stonier from the Central Queensland University. Further information on FIRA’2000 may be found at http://fira.cqu.edu.au/rwc2000.
Marcel Bergerman received his B.S. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, in December 1990 and in July 1992, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, in December 1996. He is currently coordinator of the Robotics and Computer Vision Laboratory of the Informatics Technology Center, in Campinas, Brazil. His research and development interests include educational and environmental robotics and minimalism in
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Marcel Bergerman received his B.S. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, in December 1990 and in July 1992, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, in December 1996. He is currently coordinator of the Robotics and Computer Vision Laboratory of the Informatics Technology Center, in Campinas, Brazil. His research and development interests include educational and environmental robotics and minimalism in robotics through the utilization of underactuated mechanisms. Dr. Bergerman leads or co-leads projects involving autonomous airship navigation for aerial inspection, Internet-based remotely accessible laboratories, and control of underactuated manipulators.