1. The Results

1.1 2002 FIRA Cup (http://www.fira.net/2002)

This year's FIRA Cup was co-organized by the Korea Robot Soccer
Association (KRSA), Korea Science Foundation (KSF), and YTN. It was
held from 23 May 23 2002 to 29 May 2002, in the week before the 2002
FIFA World Cup.

The 2002 FIRA Cup attracted an overwhelming participation, both locally
and from overseas. A total of 207 teams from 25 countries participated
in this grand event, making it the largest ever in its short history.

The preliminary stages of MiroSot and SimuroSot were held at the 5 FIFA
World Cup cities, namely, Busan, Daegu, Daejeon, Gwangju, and Suwon,
from 23 May 2002 to 24 May 2002. The finals of MiroSot and SimuroSot,
together with the other categories such as HuroSot, were held at SETEC,
Seoul, from 26 May 2002 to 28 May 2002. HuroSot made its debut in this
year's FIRA Cup, and was an interesting highlight of the event.

In conjunction with the finals of 2002 FIRA Cup, the FIRA Intelligent
Robot Exhibition also took place at the same venue, while the 2002 FIRA
Robot World Congress took place at COEX, Seoul, from 26 May 2002
to 29 May 2002.

The results of 2002 FIRA Cup for the various categories are as follows:

[Middle League MiroSot]
1st Place: KingGo, SungKyunKwan Univ., Korea
2nd Place: DURST, Univ. of Dortmund, Germany
3rd Place: NewNeu, Northeastern Univ., China
4th Place : AUSTRO, Vienna Univ. of Tech., Austria

[Small League MiroSot]
1st Place: POWERSUPPLY3, YeungNam Univ., Korea
2nd Place: POWERSUPPLY4, YeungNam Univ., Korea
3rd Place: Tachyon, SungKyunKwan Univ., Korea
4th Place: DURST, Univ. of Dortmund, Germany

[Middle League SimuroSot]
1st Place: WICT, Wuhan Inst. of Chemical Tech., China
2nd Place: NewNeu, Northeastern Univ., China
3rd Place: UBA-Sot, Univ. of Buenos Aires, Argentina
4th Place: Cosmos, Konyang Univ., Korea

[Large League SimuroSot]
1st Place: FORMOSA, Nat'l Taiwan Univ., Taiwan
2nd Place: Teams of HIT, Harbin Inst. of Tech., China
3rd Place: NewNeu, Northeastern Univ., China
4th Place: Guardian Angel 2, DaeBul Univ., Korea

[HuroSot]
1st Place: HanSaRam-II, KAIST, Korea
2nd Place: RATS-0, Myongji Univ., Korea
3rd Place: Robo Erectus II, Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore
* Technical Merit Award: Autonomous Operation
Tao-Pie-Pie, Univ. of Auckland, New Zealand

[KheperaSot]
1st Place: Danish Dynamite, Southern Denmark Univ., Denmark
2nd Place: Denmark, Southern Denmark Univ., Denmark
3rd Place: SCT Scooters, Univ. of Paderborn, Germany

[RoboSot]
1st Place: Teams of HIT, Harbin Inst. of Tech., China
2nd Place: 4 Stooges, Univ. of Auckland, New Zealand
3rd Place: CIIPS Glory, Univ. of Western Australia, Australia

[NaroSot]
1st Place: Y2K2, KAIST, Korea
2nd Place: MINIRO, KAIST, Korea

-------------------------------------------------------------
1.2 2002 FIRA Robot World Congress

2002 FIRA Robot World Congress, organized by Korea Robot Soccer
Association (KRSA) was held in Seoul, Korea from May 26 to 29, 2002.

The aim of the Congress is to promote research and educational
activities related to robotics fields in general by providing
an opportunity to discuss technical problems, exchange views
on future prospects on robotics and build cooperative friendship
with colleagues.

This year, as the inaugural year of the congress, we received
great attention from the robotics research groups from 26 countries
all over the world. The record of 142 paper presentations selected
through the review process, 3 plenary talks and 3 invited talks
marked the continuous growth of this congress in the future.

2002 FIRA Robot World Congress hopes all participants have had
a rewarding and memorable experience in Seoul.

-------------------------------------------------------------
1.3 FIRA Intelligent Robot Exhibition

In conjunction with the finals of 2002 FIRA Cup, the FIRA Intelligent
Robot Exhibition also took place from May 26-28 2002 at the same
venue, SETEC, Seoul. The exhibition was supported by the Korean
Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE) and KAIST
Micro-Robot Design Education Center (MRDEC).

Entertainment robots, education robots, personal robots and service
robots from over 30 Korean companies and universities took part in
this exhibition.


2. FIRA Executive Committee Meeting

FIRA Executive Committee met on the side lines of the 2002 FIRA Cup
in Seoul on May 27.

The meeting was chaired by FIRA President, Prof. Jong-Hwan Kim.
The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss how FIRA could be
further invigorated to cater to the aspirations of the FIRA Cup
participants, and especially the new comers.

One suggestion was to expand the executive committee by bringing
in as many team leaders as possible to form an international committee
where many countries are represented. At the meeting, the different
subcommittees were also formed to thoroughly look into the FIRA Game
rules.

The list of members in the new Executive Committee will be finalized
soon and then will be posted on the FIRA website.



3. FIRA Invitation Championship in Dortmund

The 32nd annual conference of the German Informatics society (GI)
will be held in Dortmund, Germany, from Sept. 30 - Oct. 3, 2002.

In conjunction with this conference, an international robot-soccer
tournament is being organized with three Asian teams and three
European teams including winners of Middle League MiroSot in 2002
FIRA Cup. Participation in this tournament is by invitation only.

For any query on the tournament, please contact Dr. Norbert Jesse
at Email: jesse@ls1.cs.uni-dortmund.de.

For detailed information on the conference, please visit the website
.


4. 2003 FIRA Cup Austria

2003 FIRA Cup will be held in Vienna, Austria from 22 September
to 27 September, 2003 organized by Institute for Handling Devices
and Robotics (IHRT) and Vienna University of Technology (VUT).

4.1 Outline

= Period (tentative): September 22 to 27, 2003

[Preliminary Rounds]: September 22 - 24
[Semi-Finals]: September 25 - 26
[Semi-Finals and Finals]: September 27

= Venues: Vienna (Vienna University of Technology)

= Competition Categories
- HuroSot / - KheperaSot /
- MiroSot (Large-7 vs. 7, Middle and Small League)
- NaroSot / - RoboSot /
- SimuroSot (Large-11 vs. 11 and Middle League)

= Social Events: Reception by the Mayor of Vienna
and Typical 'Viennese Heuriger'

-------------------------------------------------------------
4.2 Related Events: 2003 FIRA Robot World Congress

Parallel to the FIRA Cup Austria, the FIRA Robot World Congress
will be organized. The congress will review and discuss the major
advances in science and technology regarding robotics. Particular
emphasis will be given to the applications and development in the
area of entertainment/education/service/personal robots. The
contribution should focus on theories, principles and developments
as well as application in the common field of robotics.

= Topics include but are not limited to:

Specific topics
- Artificial Life / - Machine Vision / - Adaptive Systems /
- Mechatronics / - Entertainment Robots / - Multi-Agent Systems /
- Humanoid Robots / - Navigation / - Human Robot Interface /
- Path Planning / - Intelligent Control / - Robot Soccer Simulation /
- Intelligent (Smart) Sensors / - Sensors and Control /
- Legged Robots / - Supervisory Control / - Machine Learning /
- Robot Soccer System
(HuroSot, KheperaSot, MiroSot, NaroSot, RoboSot, SimusoSot)

= Regular Paper Submission:

Authors should submit an extended abstract electronically in pdf format
- 600 words - the email adress: . The first page
of the paper must be contain the title, the names and affiliations of the
authors, email address, and four key words/phrases. Please identify
the corresponding author giving full contact information including email.

= Invited Sessions:

The Program Committee also solicits proposals for invited sessions within
the technical scope of the congress. Each proposal for an invited session
should describe the theme and scope of the proposed session and how
the papers form a cohesive and complementary in the session topic. One
session typically contains six (6) papers. The proposal must contain the
title and theme of the session and a list of paper’s title, names and email
addresses of the corresponding authors. Session proposals must be
submitted through the emil address: .

= Proceeding and CD Rom:

A CD-ROM and a Book of Abstract will be provided at the congress.
A hard copy for the proceeding will be availabe at an additional charge.

= Important dates:

- Abstract submission: June 15, 2003
- Notification of Acceptance: July 15, 2003
- Camera-ready Manuscript: August 15, 2003

-------------------------------------------------------------
[2003 FIRA Cup and Congress Headquarters]

Institute for Handling Devices and Robotics,
Vienna University of Technology, Favoritenstrae 9-11/318,
A-1040 Vienna, Austria

Tel: +43-1-58801 31801 Fax: +43-1-58801 31899
E-mail: e318@ihrt.tuwien.ac.at

Homepage
: For 2003 FIRA Cup, http://www.ihrt.tuwien.ac.at/FIRAWM03
: For 2003 FIRA Congress, http://www.ihrt.tuwien.ac.at/FIRAWC03


5. Robotic Competitions in China

The 2002 Chinese Robotic Competition was held on June 8-11
in Shanghai, China . The Competition was organized by the Robotic
Competition Committee of Chinese Automation Association, Shanghai
Jiaotong University and Tongji University.

The FIRA soccer robot match was one of the competitions. Tsinghua
Univ., Peking Univ., Northeast Univ., Zhejiang Univ., Shanghai Jiaotong
Univ., Tongji Univ., and etc. paticipated the FIRA competitions.

The results for the FIRA competitions are as follows:

[Middle League Mirosot]
1st Place: Northeast Univ.
2nd Place: ZheJiang Univ.(2)
3rd Place: ZheJiang Univ.(1)

[Small League Mirosot]
1st Place: Northeast Univ.
2nd Place: Tsinghua Univ.
3rd Place: Kwangtung Univ. of Engineering

[Large League SimuroSot]
1st Place: Northeast Univ.
2nd Place: Qingdao Ocean Univ.
3rd Place: Kwangtung Univ. of Engineering

===============================================================
* The 2nd Summer School on Robot Soccer in Vienna

The second Summer School on Robot Soccer will be held from July 8
to July 19, 02 at Vienna Universitiy of Technology, Austria.

The programme consists of a theoretical and a practical part.

- On the theoretical part
: You will have attend lectures on introduction to mobile robots,
drives, communication, control, etc.
- On the practical part
: You will have chance to write your own program and test it using
real robot soccer system. Groups will be formed and teams will
compete in friendly matches, too.

The participation in the summer school is free of charge.
But the transport and accomodation should be paid by yourself.

Only limited vacancies are available. Therefore if you are interested
to participate in the summer school, please send E-mail to
Dr. Man-Wook Han (han@ihrt.tuwien.ac.at), Secretary General
of the FIRA European Chapter. In your e-mail, please include the
following information:

1) Affiliation:
2) Number and Name of participants:
3) Do you have your own team?:
4) Expected arrival date and departure:

For informaion about Vienna, please visit .


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

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

[June. 20, 2002]