Landmark-based robot self-localization: a case study for the RoboCup goal-keeper

Robot soccer competitions provide an interesting opportunity for robotics and artificial intelligence research. In particular, robot soccer players must navigate in a dynamic, partially unknown environment, co-operate with team-mates and compete with opponents, track moving objects to protect the goal and to kick the ball in the right direction, while performing real time visual perception tasks. Furthermore, all these capabilities must be integrated into a single and complete autonomous system. The paper describes our experience in building one of the players of ART (Azzurra Robot Team), designed to participate in the RoboCup competition. Such a player, the goal-keeper, is based on a Pioneer 1 robot controlled by means of a binocular vision system able to perform its tasks in real time.