1. 2002 FIRA Cup Korea

The 2002 FIRA Robot Soccer World Championship (2002 FIRA Cup)
is just 24 days away. The 2002 FIRA Cup is organized by the Korea
Science Foundation (KSF), Korea Robot Soccer Association (KRSA),
and YTN, and will be held in the FIFA World Cup cities from
May 23 to 29, 2002.

203 teams from 25 countries have already registered in 8 competition
categories: MiroSot (Middle and Small League), SimuroSot (Middle
and Large League), HuroSot, KheperaSot, NaroSot, and RoboSot.

-------------------------------------------------------------
1.1 Schedule: May 23-29, 2002

[May 23] : Opening Ceremony for the Preliminary Competitions
[May 23-24] : Preliminary Competitions of MiroSot and SimuroSot
Categories and Related Events
[May 25] : Moving from the provincial cities to Seoul *
[May 26-28] SETEC, Seoul
: Final 16 Competitions in MiroSot and SimuroSot
: Competitions in HuroSot, KheperaSot, NaroSot,
QuadroSot, and RoboSot Categories
: Award and Closing Ceremony
[May 28] : Banquet for FIRA Cup and FIRA Congress
[May 26-29] : 2002 FIRA Robot World Congress

* The competitions in the HuroSot, NaroSot, and RoboSot categories
will take place only in Seoul from 26 May to 28 May. KheperaSot
category will be held on 28 May. The teams participating in these
categories ONLY may go direct to Seoul.

-------------------------------------------------------------
1.2 Confirmation on Participating Teams

Information of registered Participating Teams is available at
the Official Homepage of 2002 FIRA Cup. In case of any modification
required for your team, please e-mail to the FIRA Headquarters
(office@fira.net).

-------------------------------------------------------------
1.3 Competition Chairs

FIRA competition rules are available on the FIRA website. If you have
questions on any of the categories and the associated rules, please
contact the respective competition chairs listed on FIRA website.
Alternatively, you may upload questions onto the Bulletin Board
at .

-------------------------------------------------------------
1.4 Information on Competition Categories

1.4-1 KheperaSot

The finalized Kheperasot rules are posted on the FIRA website.
For details of the rules, please visit the FIRA website.

1.4-2 SimuroSot

The SimuroSot platforms for both Middle and Large League for
2002 FIRA Cup are available for download at the official website
of 2002 FIRA Cup.

-------------------------------------------------------------
1.5 Draw-Lots System

The team groupings and their respective venues for the preliminary
rounds of the MiroSot and SimuroSot categories are now being
finalized in stages.

Participants in these categories will need to "draw lots" to determine
opponent team(s) in the same designated groups. E-mails are now
being sent in successive stages to request the participants to submit
their "drawn-lots". That is also when the participants will be provided
with more information about the games, the groupings and their
respective venues.

But our scheduling has been made very challenging due to tight
constraints arising from holding the preliminary rounds
in 5 different cities (Busan, Daegu, Daejeon, Gwangju, and Suwon)
instead of 6 as initially planned, the technical problems that some
participating teams could pose when more than one game is played
simultaneously, and the number of playgrounds, just to name a few.

To resolve these and to ensure that the participants involved in more
than one category will be competing in only one venue, our planning
requires the drawing of lots to be held, via email, in several stages,
as follows :

Stage 1. Draw-Lots for Middle League MiroSot (5:5).
Stage 2. Draw-Lots for Small League MiroSot (3:3).
Stage 3. Draw-Lots for Middle League SimuroSot (5:5).
Stage 4. Draw-Lots for Large League SimuroSot (11:11).

In general, for each category, the participating teams will be divided
into groups. The teams will compete within their groups in the
preliminary rounds.

For the charts and further informations, please visit "Notice" part
at .


2. 2002 FIRA Robot World Congress

The final paper submission due was over (April 15, 2002). 164 papers
from 27 countries were submitted for consideration.

This is further highlighted by three plenary talks and three invited talks
and two tutorials.

[SPECIAL SESSIONS]

* Plenary Talks

1. Rudiger Dillmann, Univ. of Karlsruhe, Germany
: The German Humanoid Robot Project
2. Maria Gini, Univ. of Minnesota, U.S.A. : Are Many Robots Better Than One?
3. Tu Xu-Yan, Univ. of Sci. & Tech. Beijing, China : AI, AL & Robotics

* Invited Talks

1. Fumio Harashima, Tokyo Denki Univ., Japan : Interaction and Intelligence
2. Peter Kopacek, Vienna Univ. of Tech., Austria
: Playing with Automation (Robots for Entertainment, Leisure and Hobby)
3. Jerry Pratt, Yobotics Inc., U.S.A.
: Bipedal Walking Robot: Advancing the Science through Killer
Application Replication and Validation, Standards and Commom Platforms,
and Competition

* Tutorials

1. Full-day Tutorial/Workshop (TA):
Sylvain Martel, MIT, U.S.A. & Metin Sitti, UC Berkeley, U.S.A.
- Main issues and challenges in the development of a miniature robot
designed for atomic and molecular-scale operations
- Advanced Micro/Nano-Robotic Systems
2. Half-day Tutorial/Workshop (TB): Jerry Pratt, Yobotics Inc., U.S.A.
- Introduction to the HuroSot Simulation Competition

This Congress will provide you the unique opportunity to discuss research
results, interact with your colleagues and peers, and have a memorable and
rewarding experience.

Please direct all queries related to the Congress to Ms. Bora Jeong,
2002 FIRA Robot World Congress Secretariat, at .


3. FIRA Intelligent Robot Exhibition

Along with the 2002 FIRA Cup, the FIRA Intelligent Robot Exhibition will
take place with support from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and
Energy (MOCIE) and KAIST Micro-Robot Design Education Center
(MRDEC) on May 26-28 in SETEC, Seoul.

Robots from the Korean Robotics Industries, Research Institutes,
Universities, etc. will take part in this exhibition.

The exhibition venue is divided into 5 zones, each dedicated to
a subfield: Entertainment Robot Zone, Industry Robot Zone, Personal
Robot Zone, Basic and applied Robot Zone, and Robot Image Zone


4. Related Events at the FIRA Cup and Congress

4.1 2002 Korea-China Joint Workshop

2002 Korea-China Joint Workshop on Intelligent Systems will be held
in COEX, Seoul, Korea from May 26~27, 2002.

The aim of the 2002 Korea-China Joint Workshop on Intelligent Systems
is to provide an informal forum for professors and researchers from
both countries to discuss the research challenges in the field, to
exchange ideas and perspectives of the field and to seek future
cooperation in this field. The theme of the Workshop is "Towards
Cognitive System Via Embedded Intelligence".

For further details, please direct all queries to Ms. Bora Jeong,
2002 FIRA Robot World Congress Secretariat, at .

-------------------------------------------------------------
4.2 Korea-Slovenia Joint Symposium

The Korea-Slovenia Joint Symposium on Intelligent System is
scheduled to be held at COEX, Seoul from May 26 to May 27, 2002
during the 2002 FIRA Robot World Congress. 5 Professors from
Slovenia and 8 Professors from Korea will attend the symposium.



5. The results of the 3rd National Robotic Soccer Championship in China

CRSA (China Robot Soccer Association) held the 3rd National Robotic
Soccer Championship from April 12~15, 2002 at Daqing, the industrial
model city of China.

More than 30 universities, including Beijing Univ., Zhejiang Univ., and
HIT, participated in this championship.

Competitions were organized into various categories, namely,
MiroSot (Small and Middle League), RoboSot, SimuroSot (Middle and
Large League), etc..

The top ranks in the MiroSot categories were as follows:

[Middle League MiroSot]
1st Place - Harbin Inst. of Tech.
2nd Place - ZheJiang Univ.

[Small League MiroSot]
1st Place - Harbin Inst. of Tech.
2nd Place - Wuhan Inst. of Chemical Tech.
3rd Place - Shanxi Univ.

For the ranks in the other categories and further details, please visit
the FIRA website or contact Prof. Hong Bing Rong
at .


6. The results of 2002 FIRA European Championship

2002 FIRA European Championship took place from April 18 to 21,
2002 in Vienna University of Technology, Austria.

Competitions in Middle and Small League MiroSot was planned at the
2002 FIRA European Championship.

[Middle League MiroSot]
1st Place - RoBohemia, Brno Univ. of Tech. (Czech Republic)
2nd Place - Ljuljana Dragons, Univ. of Ljubljana (Slovenia)
3rd Place - DURST, Dortmund Univ. (Germany)

[Small League MiroSot]
1st Place - RoBohemia, Brno Univ. of Tech. (Czech Republic)
2nd Place - Progressive Attack, Univ. of Ljubljana (Slovenia)
3rd Place - DURST, Dortmund Univ. (Germany)

For further details, please visit .

-------------------------------------------------------------
6.1 Workshop at the 2002 FIRA European Championship

On April 18, 2002, the workshop reviewed and discussed the major
advances in the science and technology of robot soccer and
the associated theory and applications. Particular emphasis
was given to the development of robot soccer system in the
subareas of image processing, communication, cooperation,
strategies, etc..

-------------------------------------------------------------
6.2 European Chapter Meeting

In order to discuss further activities of robot soccer in Europe,
the chapter meeting took place on April 18, 2002 at the Institute
for Handling Devices and Robotics.

President: Prof. Peter Kopacek (Vienna Univ. of Tech., Austria)
Vice-presidents: Prof. Bernd Reusch (Univ. of Dortmund, Germany)
Prof. Bohumil Horak
(Technical Univ. of Ostrava, Czech Republic)
Secretary General: Dr. Man-Wook Han (Vienna Univ. of Tech., Austria)
--------------------------------------------------------------
** Advertisement on RoboSot Robots

The Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) and the Yujin Robot-Soccer
Technology have developed the autonomous soccer robot system for
the RoboSot jointly. They have completed the design of the autonomous
soccer robot system that conforms to the FIRA rules. The Yujin
Robotics Corporation, Korea has manufactured the system and same
will be provided commercially.

Three new features are added to this soccer robot system:
a) two CCD cameras and eight pair of ultrasonic sensors are used
to ensure the environment sensing,
b) bi-directional wireless communication system is used for cooperation
and coordination among multiple robots,
c) the remote control keyboard is installed for easy debugging.

Please direct all queries on the system to Dr. Kyung Chul Shin,
at .

=====================================================
THE FEDERATION OF INTERNATIONAL ROBOT-SOCCER ASSOCIATION
=====================================================

Editor-in-chief: Jong-Hwan Kim

Editors: Prahlad Vadakkepat, Han Pang Huang, Igor Verner,
Elmer Dadios, Jun Jo, Norbert Jesse, Paul Robinson,
Hong Bingrong, Man-Wook Han, Amitabha Mukerjee,
Roberto Tavares, Chao Cheng, Chris H. Messom,
Krzysztof R.Kozlowski, J.L. de la Rosa I Esteva,
Seow Kiam Tian

Editorial Staff: Jin-Ah Lee, Hye-Young Park,
Mi-Hong Sim, and Min-Jeong Kim

FIRA Head-Quarters
Undergraduate Building 2, KAIST,
373-1 Gusong-dong, Yusong-gu,
Daejeon 305-701, Korea.
Tel: +82-42-869-3448, 8871~9
Fax: +82-42-869-8870
E-mail: fira@fira.net
http://www.fira.net * http://www.firacongress.net

=======================================================

[April. 30, 2002]

You would..
http://fira.net/?document_srl=1764
(*.248.151.81)