Building integrated robots for soccer competition

Middle sized robot soccer competition provides an excellent opportunity for distributed robotic systems. In particular, a team of dog sized robot players must perform real time visual recognition, navigate in a dynamic field, track moving objects and collaborate with teammates (R.C. Arkin, 1987). Our design philosophy for the system architecture is that we view each robot as a complete and active physical entity, who can intelligently maneuver and perform in realistic and challenging surroundings. In order to survive the rapidly changing environment in a soccer game, each robot must be physically strong, computationally fast, and behaviorally accurate. Considerable importance is given to an individual robot's ability to perform on its own without any off-board resources such as global, birds eye view cameras or remote computing processors. Each robot's behavior must base on its own sensor data, decision making software, and eventually communication with teammates.