At the same time as the World Cup with human (or what sometimes seem to be superhuman) players is taking place, another world cup tournament is being held, also in Japan and Korea.  The players in this world cup, however, are not humans but robots.  Some 3,000 researchers from 35 countries are taking part in the 6th RoboCup in Fukuoka, Japan in cooperation with Busan, Korea.  Unlike the FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) 2002 World Cup, however, the RoboCup includes conferences and research and educational programs, as well as games.

While it is unlikely to surpass human soccer (probably the world's most widely-played sport) in popularity, robot soccer is growing rapidly and is making a substantial contribution to the field of robotics in the process.  The first RoboCup was held in Nagoya, Japan, in 1997, and annual events have followed in Paris, Stockholm, Melbourne and Seattle.  The overall goal of the effort is, by 2050, to field "a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots, that can win against the human world soccer champion team."

In late May 2002, in Seoul, South Korea, FIRA (the Federation of International Robot Soccer Association) held another (apparently competitive) International Robot Soccer World Championship, sponsored in this case by the Korean Robot Soccer Association.  And national robot soccer tournaments have also proliferated.  The technical challenges of creating robots that are capable of performing all of the functions that are required to play competitive soccer are enormous.  By overcoming them, researchers and engineers are developing capabilities in artificial intelligence, sensors, and other robotics technologies that will contribute to a wide range of practical applications in the future.

Links:
= highly recommended

2002 FIRA Robot Soccer World Championship. This site has an annoying number of pop-ups and a confusing mix of English and Korean characters.

The European Robot Soccer Champion, 1999.  Developed at the Technical University of Vienna, Austria, a team of these robots can be ordered from the web site for €7,450 ($US 6,928 at current exchange rates).

Robot Soccer, from Korea.  "Kick the Ball, Get the Dream '2002." I'm not sure what the dream is, because unfortunately I can't read Korean, and there is no English version of this site.

Robotic Soccer -- an interesting page describing the concept, with links and observations from the author, Jay Scott, who is on the staff of the Math Forum at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Java Soccer -- an online simulation.  I did not find it especially engaging.

The Co-Evolutionary Robot Soccer Show.  "A game that allows you to develop robot soccer players by using the concept of co-evolution. You can develop the robot soccer players in the software provided for free at this web-site. You evolve different robot soccer players by changing the parameters for the evolution (the population parameters and the fitness formula parameters)."

The Danish Robot Soccer Championship, 1997.  A one-on-one game interesting as a baseline for comparison with today's technology to see how much progress has been made in the past five years.

Lego Robot Soccer, a demonstration in conjunction with the RoboCup in Paris in 1998, with some nice links and many photos.

Robot Soccer by Autonomous Intelligent Vehicles, an entry in a previous RoboCup from the University of Western Australia, using the "EyeBot" developed at UWA, a camera-based controller for mobile robots.

Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) Sony Legged Robot Soccer Team.  A couple of members of this team, which look like Sony Aibo toys, are pictured above.  A large site, with lots of links and pictures.

Robot Soccer from Brigham Young University in Utah.  A senior project.

The University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia) RoboCup 2001 Sony Legged Robot Soccer Competition.

The Robot Soccer Project of the Center for Robotics of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Robot Soccer at Newton Research Labs (Renton, WA) -- "Newton Research Labs [maker of machine vision and robotics systems] is the proud winner of the first International Micro Robot World Cup Soccer Tournament (MIROSOT) held by KAIST in Taejon, Korea, in November of 1996." 

The Official 2002 FIFA World Cup site.