Greetings from the RoboCup-97 Organizer
1997 will be remembered as a turning point in the history of
science and engineering.
In early May, we witnessed that decades of efforts by talented and dedicated
researchers resulted in a specialized computer system which can even beat
the human world champion in Chess.
One of the goals of AI, which lasted over 40 years,
came to a successful conclusion.
NASA's Mars pathfinder, the first autonomous robot system deployed
on another planet, is still engaged in its mission even at this moment.
This is the first year of the second half of the century, since the modern form
computer was invented.
This is the year that the first RoboCup is held.
RoboCup (The Robot World Cup Soccer Games and Conferences)
is an attempt to promote
AI and robotics research by providing a common task for
evaluation of various theories, algorithms, and agent architectures.
In order for robots (physical robots and software agents) to play a
soccer game reasonably well, a wide range of technologies need to be
integrated and a number of technical breakthroughs must be accomplished.
The range of technologies spans both
AI and robotics research, such as
design principles of autonomous agents, multi-agent collaboration,
strategy acquisition, real-time reasoning and planning, intelligent
robotics, sensor-fusion, and so forth.
It is essential for the scientific community to have significant long range
goals, whose accomplishment will lead to significant technical and
social contributions, directly or indirectly.
Potential applications of technologies developed by RoboCup
are numerous, including:
urban search and rescue, robots for hazardous and hostile environments,
office robots which can work with people, and safety systems for autonomous
robots.
RoboCup is specifically designed to foster scientific and engineering
research to create a basis of the next generation of industry.
It is now expected to be the landmark project of the AI and robotics
communities for the 21st century.
The RoboCup Japanese National Committee and Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc.
is organizing RoboCup-97,
the Robot World Cup Soccer Games and Conferences 1997.
This is the first international games and conferences organized
with the authorization of the RoboCup International Committee.
RoboCup is regularly scheduled to organize games and conferences
on both international and regional scales.
RoboCup-97 organizing committee would like to express sincere thanks to
our corporate sponsors and supporting societies and companies for their
understanding and support for this project. We also wish to thank those who
helped us directly or indirectly to make this project in reality.
We sincerely hope that RoboCup will
contribute to the progress of science and technology, and will foster
innovations to help shape the next generation's industries.