Atthe 2020 RoboCup China Competition, two teams from Zhejiang University—ZJUNlictand ZJUDancer—clinched first place in the Small Size League and the HumanoidKidSize League respectively.

TheSmall Size League is one of the oldest RoboCup Soccer leagues. It focuses onthe problem of intelligent multi-robot/agent cooperation and control in ahighly dynamic environment with a hybrid centralized/distributed system. Due totheir small size, robots can move as fast as 4m/s and the ball speed can amountto 6.5m/s.

ZJUNlictwas established in 2003. With the immense efforts of each ZJUNlicter, the teamwon the world championship in the Small Size League in RoboCup in 2013, 2014,2018 and 2019.

Atthe 2020 RoboCup China Competition, ZJUNlict mesmerized the audience withdazzling performance. The team made it to the final with three clean victories.In the final, the team defeated the SRC team from Shanghai Jiao TongUniversity—the reigning championship team—with a clean 3:0 victory.

Theother team—ZJUDancer—has developed into a highly competitive team in theHumanoid KidSize League. In the Humanoid KidSize League, autonomous robots witha human-like body plan and human-like senses play soccer against each other.Dynamic walking, running, and kicking the ball while maintaining balance,visual perception of the ball, other players, and the field, self-localization,and team play are among the many research issues investigated in the HumanoidLeague.

Atthe 2020 RoboCup China Competition, ZJUDancer beat the rival teams fromSoutheast University and Tsinghua University in the preliminary round anddefeated the team from Beijing Information Science & Technology Universityin the semifinal. In the final, it clinched an overwhelming 7:0 victory againstthe team from Northwestern Polytechnic University.

Theofficial goal of RoboCup is that “By the middle of the 21st century, a team offully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win a soccer game, complyingwith the official rules of FIFA, against the winner of the most recent WorldCup.” With the progress of artificial intelligence and robotics, the soccergame between robot players and human players will definitely rivet immenseattention from the whole world in the not-too-distant future.